As the UK's key source of advice on online safety, we applaud the measures announced today by David Cameron to hinder offenders in accessing child abuse images.
The true experts in the field, however, are our colleagues over at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP). CEOP's Chief Exec Peter Davies, shown here, has issued a statement about the PM's speech:
“The Prime Minister has today outlined the government’s commitment to stepping up its efforts to stop offenders accessing child abuse images on the internet through increased cooperation with industry.
“He has clearly set October as a deadline for the industry to show what they are doing to increase their support for law enforcement and how they are making a fundamental shift in their approach to this horrendous crime. Industry must own the problem, working in partnership with government and law enforcement.
“CEOP and the industry already work together and so do the key industry players themselves. However, there is no doubt this work must be stepped up so we make the internet an even more hostile place for child sex offenders.
“As a world leader in child protection, CEOP has the knowledge, experience and expertise to help industry achieve what the government is asking it to do.
“We already have good relationships with ISPs and search engines, which provides us with a great platform to harness this increased support and their immense technical skills to prevent people from accessing child abuse imagery online.
“Let’s not lose sight that every child abuse image is a crime scene and every time an image is accessed the child is being re-victimised. Also, those who access child abuse images often have a sexual interest in children which manifests itself in other even more harmful ways.
“Anything which helps stop the distribution of this material or deters those who feed the market by accessing it online can only be a good thing and, working with the world’s leading technology companies like Microsoft, Google and Facebook, we’re ready to hear their ideas on other ways to stop illegal child abuse material being viewed online and to support their work.
“But let’s not be blinded to the fact that our work is not just about stopping people from accessing the images that already exist on the internet. We need to continue our work on stopping them from being produced and distributed in the first place by catching child sex offenders and safeguarding children to stop them suffering more horrendous abuse.
“The strength of the UK’s law enforcement response to this crime will be boosted further from October when CEOP becomes a command within the National Crime Agency. We will be able to share our expertise with more law enforcement officers as well as draw on the knowledge and experience of a wide range of professionals to combat child abuse wherever it is happening.”
