Göteborgs universitet
Göteborgs universitet
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  4. Marie Eneman

Marie Eneman

Universitetslektor

Inst tillämpad IT, avd för
informatik
E-post
marie.eneman@ait.gu.se
Besöksadress
Forskningsgången 6
41756 Göteborg
Postadress
41296 Göteborg

Om Marie Eneman

Current work position: Senior Lecturer, Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg

Education:

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Informatics, Department of Applied Information Technology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden,
  • Master of Science in Computer Science, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

Research areas:

Surveillance in the digital society

Digitalisation of society and recent developments in AI is laying the ground for surveillance capabilities of a magnitude we have not seen before. A rapid expansion in state governed surveillance is now taking place where police authorities all around the world are introducing a variety of surveillance technologies such as stationary surveillance systems (CCTV), body-worn cameras, drones, facial and motion recognition, digital fingerprints and a variety of sensors, justified by the assumption of improved public security. One of the latest technological innovations now introduced within police authorities is biometric technologies such as facial recognition technology. These emerging surveillance technologies are more concealed, pervasive and automated, enabling many processes and tasks to be performed at the same time, but also facilitating large-scale collection and storage of data, as well as making it possible for data to rapidly flow within and between different systems. By leaving individuals in situations where they may not be aware of when they are being exposed to surveillance, this development is associated with risks to individuals’ privacy.

My research focuses on the increased surveillance in society, driven and conducted by both state actors (authorities, not least the police etc) and market actors (private companies, platform owners etc). More specifically, I’m investigating how these emerging surveillance practices are organized in relation to technological affordances, institutional conditions and regulative frameworks surrounding the practices. The central and critical question at stake is how individuals’ privacy (which is an important democratic and civil right) can be ensured in relation to both state and market logics.

Sexual exploitation against children in the digital society

The increased digitalisation of society has profoundly changed the circumstances for people with a sexual interest in children to engage in the production, distribution and consumption of child abuse material. Furthermore, digital technologies enable contact and communication with like-minded individuals sharing the same sexual interest in children and also facilitate new forms of getting in contact with children (potential victims). Child abuse material (sometimes also referred to as child pornography) refers to documented material depicting the sexual abuse and/or sexual exploitation of a child (or children) and the term sexual grooming refers to the process

My research has focused on (convicted) offenders' strategies in relation to child pornography and sexual grooming and the societal response in form of regulation such as legislation and also technological regulation of these crimes against children. The title of my doctoral thesis: Developing child protection strategies: a critical study of offenders’ use of information technology for the sexual exploitation of children. I have also conducted research on Internet filtering/Internet blocking of child pornography which has been organized as a voluntary collaboration with Swedish police and a number of Internet providers. In connection with that research, I was appointed as a third party to lead and be responsible for the evaluation work of the police's blocking practice of child pornography.

I have highlighted several times, that it is a serious shortcoming that the Swedish legislation regarding ‘child pornography’ is placed in the Swedish Code of Statutes, the Penal Code, Chapter 16, 10 a §, which governs crimes against public order, Law (2010: 399). I strongly suggest that the legal definition should be changed to replace the term ‘child pornography’ with for example ‘child abuse material’ and that the offense should be moved from ‘Crime against public order’ to the section with ‘Sexual offenses’.

Currently, I'm involved in a study exploring law enforcement practices where crime investigations of child abuse material occur. This study focuses on challenges, opportunities and dilemmas police officers encounter when investigating child abuse material in relation to emerging digital technologies for example AI and machine learning.

As a researcher with expertise in the field, I have been engaged in court processes and also in evaluation work of Swedish legislations.

Other: I regularly presents my research both within and outside academia.