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24 Apr 2006
A new UK agency has been set up to deal with child pornography and online grooming, with powers to confiscate the assets of offenders.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre went live at midnight and by 8am this morning had already picked up details of online paedophile activity.
"Child sex abuse is one of the worst crimes imaginable," said Home Office Minister Paul Goggins.
"It is a crime from which individual offenders and organised criminal enterprises can and do profit.
"I see the CEOP Centre as a major platform from which we can launch a coordinated effort to stay that vital one step ahead of the criminal."
The new agency will include a 24/7 hotline to report any incidents of online child abuse, constant monitoring of chat rooms to catch groomers in the act and a new agreement with Visa to seize the assets of viewers and providers.
The team will also work with other forces internationally to track down the purveyors of illegal material.
The agency is headed by Jim Gamble, former deputy director general of the National Crime Squad.
"The CEOP Centre is the most significant development in child protection in recent years and is a direct response to the explosion in online child abuse," he said.
"What we have to understand is that behind every image online there is a child in the real world being abused. Behind every online chat there is the potential that your child may be speaking to a sex offender. That is a harsh reality."
The growth in the distribution of child abuse images continues to rise. One operation alone seized over 750,000 images recently, while the latest figures show that over eight million children and young people have access to the internet throughout the UK.
One survey has shown that one in 12 children with internet access have met someone offline who they initially encountered in an online environment.
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Do you agree?
Statistics
I really hate when they post statistics like "One survey has shown that one in 12 children with internet access have met someone offline who they initially encountered in an online environment." When all this indicates is that a minor could have met a minor off-line. People to often use statistics to make the mentally weak swayed by them even though they do not apply to the situation. Do I believe this task force is a good idea. Yeah of course I do. But I still think causing a "panic" with misleading information is wrong.
Posted by: Tim 26 Apr 2006
naughty copper!
"What we have to understand is that behind every image online there is a child in the real world being abused." Well. That's simply untrue - UK law treats images of children, and doctored images (either doctored to make them indecent, or doctored to make them appear to contain children) identically. I'm astonished a man whose job it is to enforce that law pretends otherwise.
Posted by: Bob Wilber 25 Apr 2006
its a bad good thing
"What we have to understand is that behind every image online there is a child in the real world being abused. Behind every online chat there is the potential that your child may be speaking to a sex offender. That is a harsh reality." So let me put it like this: Around every corner there is the potential for a bus waiting to run you down, a drunk motorist about to kill your kids, a speeding motorist about to kill you, a murderer waiting to kill you, the list goes on. I agree with the first part, but the second part is very questionable as you're kids shouldn't be online in the first place without you monitoring them. The first part of your quote is true BUT your resources should be targetted at CATCHING those people responsible for taking those images and abusing those kids. As usual and as with motorists you go for the easy catch, the easy news soundbite, the easy statistics, you are being nothing more than policemen waiting with radar guns. Why don't you go out there and catch the abusers instead of the people looking at the photos. No, all you will do is close internet sites but the same number of kids will be abused. Yeah your stats will look great but you'll do nothing for the kids. How do you sleep at night wasting the public money like that which could alleviate these little peoples suffering! You want news soundbites that's all. Do something for the children!
Posted by: terraslate 24 Apr 2006