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Home Office

Answer

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to protect children from paedophiles operating on the internet. [198191] Paul Goggins: The Government is determined to ensure that children are protected from the insidious use of the internet by paedophiles. In 2001 The Home Secretary's Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet was established, with the aim of making the UK the best and safest place in the world for children to use the internet, and to help protect children the world over from abuse fuelled by criminal misuse of new technologies. Much good work has been initiated through the Task Force to assist in working towards these objectives. The Task Force has recently launched its fourth national awareness campaign to help keep children safe on the internet, and Government has spent over £3 million on the development of these campaigns. We have also provided guidance for young people, as well as parents and carers. In 2003 the Task Force developed and published models of good practice for providers of chat, instant messaging and web services, the first of their kind in the world. These encourage clear and accessible safety messages, advice and user-friendly ways of reporting abuse. The Task Force is currently reviewing these models. This year, following discussions with the Task Force, the UK mobile operators published a self-regulatory Code of Practice for new forms of content on mobile phone services, and furthermore a Code of Practice has also been developed by the mobile operators on passive location based services. We have also been working with industry to look at the issues which are raised by moderation in interactive services (such as chat rooms), and a draft good practice model for companies offering such moderation is nearing completion. These are just some of the examples of the work of the Task Force in seeking to protect children online. The Government is also ensuring that legislation provides an adequate deterrent to those who might consider doing harm to children. The Sexual Offences Act introduced a new criminal offence, developed by the Task Force, to tackle the "grooming" of children by paedophiles online or offline. The Act also included the creation of a Risk of Sexual Harm Order which relates to behaviour towards a child for an illegal or harmful sexual purpose. Law enforcement agencies in the UK are at the cutting edge of developing new techniques to detect and combat paedophile activity on the internet. We fully support effective intelligence-led policing to help forces effectively investigate paedophiles using the internet. In addition the Home Office is also considering with the Association of Chief Police Officers as part of the police reform agenda, how crimes which by their nature are not confined to geographical force areas, such as online paedophilia, are best dealt with within force structures. The Government is also aware that child abuse on line is an international problem that can only be combated through effective international co-operation. We continue to work within international fora to encourage practical and other measures to remove images of child abuse wherever they are hosted, and to increase child safety online.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

198191; 426 c2067-8W;426 c2073-4W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Children Crime prevention Government assistance Internet Protection Pornography Paedophilia

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk