National Centre for Child Protection on the net is approved
NEW CENTRE TO PROTECT CHILDREN ONLINE
As part of “Connecting the UK: the digital strategy” to be outlined by the Prime Minister, the Home Office today announced that the Government is to set up a new Centre for Child Protection on the Internet to support the police and child protection agencies. The Centre will target paedophiles using the internet to distribute illegal images and ‘groom’ children.
The Centre’s aim will be to reduce the harm caused to children, families and societies by child abuse facilitated through the internet.
The centre is supported by the members of the Home Secretary’s Internet Task Force, including the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO),the Internet Watch Foundation, children’s charities and the internet industry. The Centre will be attached to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and will be operational by April 2006. It will be staffed by specialist police officers as well as child protection and internet industry experts, and will be a focal point for the online element of child protection work.
The new Centre will:
- provide a single 24/7 point of contact for the public, law enforcers, industry, and other organisations for reporting targeting of children online;
- offer information and advice to victims and potential victims of abuse and parents;
- assess and disseminate international and domestic intelligence on online and offline offenders, including paedophiles and other serious sex offenders;
- crime prevention and crime reduction strategies to reduce the harm caused by online child abuse;
- undertake proactive investigations to identify high priority targets;
- manage the national database of child abuse images (“Childbase”) and implement links to other systems; and
- provide specialist guidance and good practice to local agencies.
The centre is welcomed by the IWF who, through their internet 'hotline', provide a free public service for the public to report exposure to child abuse images on the net. As the Centre will deal with suspects, which falls outside of the IWF remit, this new resource will enable an effective working partnership.
Peter Robbins, IWF CEO said:
"The problem of internet crimes against children is a national and international problem that cannot be tackled by individual police forces. The centre is a significant step forward as it will provide a reassuring point of contact for internet professionals, victims and child protection experts to refer to.
The IWF will continue it's work on minimising the availability of child abuse images online and looks forward to working in partnership with the Centre when it is launched next year."
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said:“Protecting children is a key priority for the Government, and that applies online as well as offline. Online abuse by definition crosses geographical police force boundaries – so it makes much more sense to tackle the problem at national level.
“The new centre I am announcing today will protect children online, help the police do their job more effectively, and catch and prosecute child abusers who target children through the internet. Parents know how to protect their children from danger offline; we want to help protect their children online in the same way.
“The Task Force we set up in 2001 to tackle this problem has shown that our law enforcers, the internet industry and our children’s charities are all committed to helping us stamp out online child abuse, and today’s announcement is the next step towards closer co-operation.”
Stuart Hyde, ACPO lead on Child Abuse on the Internet and Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police:
“We have worked with our partners in government, industry and the voluntary sector to create the business case for the National Centre. I am delighted that we are now seeing the fruits of that labour. As part of SOCA the Centre will enable the UK to have the best response to combating child abuse online.
“The National Centre will be a major contribution to making the internet safer. I would like to thank my colleagues and partners for their support in turning this idea into a reality.”
Trevor Pearce, Director General of the National Crime Squad, said:
We are delighted with the announcement today of the creation of the new Centre and look forward to working closely with Ministers to deliver this by April 2006.
"UK law enforcement has been at the forefront of tackling online child abuse and it is in recognition of our achievements that we can now create a world first. Working with child welfare agencies and industry partners, the new Centre will allow us to build on existing foundations and deliver a step-change in child protection."
NSPCC director of services for children and young people Wes Cuell said:
“The Internet Safety Centre is the result of months of partnership working between the NSPCC and the police. We are delighted to see the foundations we helped to build come to fruition as the centre marks a big step towards making the internet a safer place for children and young people.
“The growth of internet use has led to an explosion in the distribution of child pornography, and with the advent of new technology, children are at greater risk than ever before. Placing the new Centre within SOCA puts online child abuse as a national police priority for the first time and sends out a strong message that the internet is no longer a market place for abusive images of children”.
John Carr of NCH the children’s charity, and a member of the Government’s Internet Task Force, said:
“This National Centre marks a big step forward in tackling online child abuse. It’s the first example anywhere in the world of the police, the industry, child welfare bodies and the Government working together under one roof to tackle internet child abuse.”
Mike Galvin, BT’s director of Internet Operations, said:
“BT welcomes the news that the Government will support a dedicated centre for Internet Safety in the UK. The centre will make is easier for all of us in the internet industry to report abuse, especially child abuse. We fully support the work of the centre to facilitate faster victim identification and assistance as well as faster abuser profiling and arrests.
“This announcement further demonstrates the Government’s and the industry’s commitment to seek to make the UK the safest place in the world for children to use the internet, which is the main aim of the Internet Taskforce.
To contact the IWF Media office please call: 01223 237 700 or email media@iwf.org.uk
Notes to Editors:
1. The Internet Protection Task Force was set up in 2001. More information about its work and its membership is available at
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/internetcrime/taskforce.html.
2. Child protection will remain the responsibility of local police forces and child protection agencies, but the new Centre will work closely with them, as well as providing support to focus efforts more closely on the highest risk offenders.
3. SOCA [the Serious Organised Crime Agency] will come into being on 1 April 2006, subject to the passage of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill through Parliament. The agency’s role will to reduce the harm caused to the UK by organised crime. The Centre will be attached to SOCA, but will operate independently of other operational units.
4. Today the Prime Minister is launching the “Connecting the UK: the digital strategy”. The Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and the DTI have set out the strategy to make the UK a world leader in digital excellence and the first nation to close the digital divide. As internet use expands and becomes commonplace in all aspects of our lives, the need for child safety is greater than ever. The new Centre will play an important role in helping children and parents become more comfortable and confident in exploiting the benefits of the internet safely.
Created: Thu, March 31st, 2005 | Last Modified: Mon, August 14th, 2006
