The UK Government is to set up a Centre for Child Protection on the
Internet to support the police and child protection agencies, the
Home Office said on Friday. It will target paedophiles who use 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), which comes into being on 1st April 2006 (subject to
the passage of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill through
Parliament), and the Centre should be operational by that date. 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 on-line 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 on-line. It will offer information
and advice to victims and potential victims of abuse and parents,
and assess and disseminate international and domestic intelligence
on on-line and off-line offenders.
It will also implement crime prevention and crime reduction
strategies designed to reduce the harm caused by on-line child
abuse, and undertake proactive investigations to identify high
priority targets, and manage the national database of child abuse
images ("Childbase") and implement links to other systems.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said: "Protecting children is a
key priority for the Government, and that applies on-line as well
as off-line. On-line abuse by definition crosses geographical
police force boundaries – so it makes much more sense to tackle the
problem at national level."
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."
