E-Spy, as the initiative is known, aims to combine the
investigative skills of police officers with the NSPCC’s child
protection experience in order to trace and protect online child
porn victims, and also to track and convict the paedophiles
responsible for the abuse.
The new initiative combines staff from Greater Manchester
Police’s Abusive Images Unit with two NSPCC social workers, who are
now based full time in the unit.
Assistant Chief Constable Dave Whatton said: "Many of the
offenders who use the internet to access and circulate such images,
naively believe that they can do so anonymously. But I want to send
a clear message to them, that our specially trained officers police
the internet, as they would any other beat and so they will be
caught and brought to justice".
The NSPCC urges anyone who has concerns about a child to speak
out. It runs a free 24-hour Child Protection Helpline on 0808 800
5000.
Web users who find illegal content online can also contact the
Internet Watch Foundation, an EU and industry-funded body that
works to minimise the availability of illegal internet content. If
it finds that the content is illegal it will transfer the details
to the police and ISPs.
