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| New powers to remove images of child abuse from internet | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Ministers say agreements reached with internet firms will lead to a "fundamental change" in how images of child abuse are dealt with online. | |
| Firms such as Google, Microsoft and Twitter were summoned to a meeting in Whitehall amid calls for them to do more to remove illegal material. | |
| They have agreed to give the Internet Watch Foundation more powers and resources to search out abusive images. | |
| Culture Secretary Maria Miller said she took the issue "very seriously". | |
| Internet service providers in the UK have been at the centre of the debate about online images showing the sexual abuse of children following two high-profile court cases in which offenders were known to have sought child pornography online. | Internet service providers in the UK have been at the centre of the debate about online images showing the sexual abuse of children following two high-profile court cases in which offenders were known to have sought child pornography online. |
| 'Unrelenting' | 'Unrelenting' |
| Mark Bridger, sentenced to life in May for the murder of five-year-old April Jones in Machynlleth, Powys, searched for child abuse and rape images. | Mark Bridger, sentenced to life in May for the murder of five-year-old April Jones in Machynlleth, Powys, searched for child abuse and rape images. |
| And police who searched the Croydon home of Stuart Hazell, jailed for life in May for murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp, said they had found "extensive" pornography featuring young girls. | And police who searched the Croydon home of Stuart Hazell, jailed for life in May for murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp, said they had found "extensive" pornography featuring young girls. |
| The prime minister has pledged to "put the heat on" companies to make removing obscene material and blocking access to indecent images more of a priority, saying he is not "satisfied" enough is being done. | The prime minister has pledged to "put the heat on" companies to make removing obscene material and blocking access to indecent images more of a priority, saying he is not "satisfied" enough is being done. |
| The meeting, chaired by Culture Secretary Maria Miller, was attended by Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, O2, EE and Three. | |
| The government said the companies had agreed to allow the IWF to proactively search out abusive images, rather than just acting upon reports it receives, and to give it an extra £1m to boost its capabilities. | |
| The culture secretary said the public expected that everything possible was being done to remove "absolutely abhorrent" material - including images of child abuse - from the web. | |
| "What has been agreed today is a fundamental change in the way the industry will approach child abuse images and removing them from public view," she told BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme. | |
| "It does mean that more of those images can be removed too." | |
| The government would continue to work with industry to tackle the distribution of obscene images by e-mail and other channels, she added. | |
| A 2011 review by Mothers Union chief executive Reg Bailey concluded that children were being bombarded by sexual images on the internet, television, music videos and in advertising and it should be much easier for parents to block under-age access online. | A 2011 review by Mothers Union chief executive Reg Bailey concluded that children were being bombarded by sexual images on the internet, television, music videos and in advertising and it should be much easier for parents to block under-age access online. |
| Education | Education |
| The Internet Service Providers Association has said filtering tools should be more widely available but it opposes default settings, as these can be "circumvented". | The Internet Service Providers Association has said filtering tools should be more widely available but it opposes default settings, as these can be "circumvented". |
| It argues that education and empowering parents to make safe choices are also necessary. | |
| The association has said it will use the meeting to stress what the industry is already doing to block access to images of child abuse and criminally obscene adult material, and to remove them in conjunction with the police. | The association has said it will use the meeting to stress what the industry is already doing to block access to images of child abuse and criminally obscene adult material, and to remove them in conjunction with the police. |
| Claire Perry, the Conservative MP who advises the prime minister on the issue, said violent online images were still accessible even though they were outlawed and there was a link between them and horrific crimes committed against children. | Claire Perry, the Conservative MP who advises the prime minister on the issue, said violent online images were still accessible even though they were outlawed and there was a link between them and horrific crimes committed against children. |
| She said progress was being made on a voluntary basis to ensure adult material could not be accessed online in public places, and age-verification mechanisms and "one-click" filters, in place unless parents turned them off, were becoming widely available. | She said progress was being made on a voluntary basis to ensure adult material could not be accessed online in public places, and age-verification mechanisms and "one-click" filters, in place unless parents turned them off, were becoming widely available. |
| "We've done it without regulation; we've done it by working systematically with the industry," she said. "At the moment the filtering work is going really well, and no need for legislation." | "We've done it without regulation; we've done it by working systematically with the industry," she said. "At the moment the filtering work is going really well, and no need for legislation." |
| The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said the internet industry was angry that what it saw as separate issues - illegal child abuse images and children's access to harmful material - were being conflated. | The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said the internet industry was angry that what it saw as separate issues - illegal child abuse images and children's access to harmful material - were being conflated. |
| BT said recently that any of its customers attempting to access web pages on the Internet Watch Foundation's list of identified images of child sexual abuse would now see a message telling them that the site was blocked and the reason why. | BT said recently that any of its customers attempting to access web pages on the Internet Watch Foundation's list of identified images of child sexual abuse would now see a message telling them that the site was blocked and the reason why. |
| Under the current system, the site is blocked, but internet users only see an "Error 404" message. | Under the current system, the site is blocked, but internet users only see an "Error 404" message. |
| In a related development, internet search firm Google has said it will help create a database of images to improve collaboration between the police, companies and anti-abuse charities as well as fund developers to improve better tools to block images. | In a related development, internet search firm Google has said it will help create a database of images to improve collaboration between the police, companies and anti-abuse charities as well as fund developers to improve better tools to block images. |