Scale of child abuse images online is 'shocking', says NSPCC
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Version 0 of 1. Two people are being convicted of child abuse image crimes every day on average, two years after a government pledge to crack down on the offence, the NSPCC says. The charity said its analysis of news reports showed there had been at least 1,000 court cases involving indecent images of children since David Cameron’s July 2013 speech in which he threatened to impose tough new laws on internet companies if they failed to blacklist key search terms. The NSPCC said a snapshot of 100 cases revealed that 4.5m child abuse images were discovered among them, with one in three of the 101 convicted criminals involved having held a position of trust or a role that allowed them access to children. Claire Lilley, head of child safety online for the NSPCC, said: “The scale of the problem is shocking and even more so because of the number of people who hold positions of trust in our communities. This is just a fragment of the hundreds of other similar convictions during the same time. “It is a myth that there is no harm in just looking at these images. Defenceless babies and children are being molested to feed the appetite of offenders and that demand is just not going away. Related: Alexis Jay on child sex abuse: ‘Politicians wanted to keep a lid on it’ “The prime minister made a bold attempt to tackle this problem, but it is clear that, two years after he called for a crackdown, the scale of the problem is proving to be massive. We need urgent action to prevent this horrendous abuse from appearing online.” The NSPCC said those convicted of abuse image crimes in the last two years included doctors, teachers, scout leaders, clergymen, police officers, a magician and a Santa Claus. Only two were women. Six out of 10 were jailed. Those convicted included a father and son, and a teenager who confessed to viewing such pictures from the age of 12. More than a quarter were also convicted of other sexual crimes, including grooming, voyeurism, and indecent assault, and one in six already had criminal records for similar offences. In July 2013, Cameron called on internet companies to protect children from “poisonous” websites that are “corroding childhood”, including introducing family-friendly filters that automatically block pornography unless customers choose to opt out. In a speech at the NSPCC headquarters in east London, he acknowledged the issue of extreme and child abuse images is “hard for our society to confront” and “difficult for politicians to talk about”. Karen Bradley, minister for preventing abuse and exploitation, said on Wednesday that the government was leading the fight against online child sexual exploitation. “At last year’s #WeProtect summit, the prime minister announced a series of new measures to improve the global response to online child sexual exploitation, including funding of £10m for further specialist teams within the National Crime Agency (NCA). “Measures also include new collaboration between the NCA and GCHQ using the latest techniques to target online offenders, making it illegal to communicate sexually with a child, and technological developments to ensure victims of online abuse can be identified more quickly and offenders are subject to speedier justice. “The government has also prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat and is due to make live streaming of abuse images punishable in the same way as recorded images, in order to ensure perpetrators face the toughest possible sentences.” |