I cry for all the children who
won't be home tonight
For the sad and lonely parents
their heartaches and their plight
Whether they left on their own
or were stolen in the night
I cry for all the children who
won't be home tonight
Sometimes we try our very best
to keep them safe from harm
We nudge them gently back on track
or try and lend a guiding arm
Then other times it just happens
a wrong place and a very wrong time
Swiftly snatched up and out of sight
a parents nightmare, another child to find
Sitting here I agonize, my tears begin to flow
watching these children one by one
as their panic and sorrow grow
Sometimes no matter how hard
we try to keep them out of harm
They slip from underneath our wings
and we must sound out with alarm
Yes it takes a village
to raise a child into a man
Everyone has to do their part
and lend a helping hand
If we hide and close our eyes,
pretend we do not see
Our future is lost, there is nothing left
but much pain and agony
Whether they left on their own
or were stolen in the night
I cry for all the children who
won't be home tonight
Have your say
Should the UK adopt ’Megan’s Law’ and allow parents to have information on sex offenders living in their area?
No, it is pandering to media pressure
17.27 %
Yes, the public is entitled to know
78.21 %
I don’t know
4.52 %
Protecting children on the internet is a major UK government priority.
Please allow me to give you a brief summary of how the Government and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are tackling the problem of access to child abuse images on the internet. In 2004 British Telecom developed a technical solution which allows them to prevent their customers accidentally accessing all child abuse URL’s – as identified by the UK Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) – regardless of where it is hosted. This solution has been applied since mid 2004 and means that home users requesting a blacklisted webpage of a listed child abuse image receive a page not found error message.
The BT technology has subsequently been utilised by a number of other UK ISPs and mobile phone operators to block access to child abuse images. This does have the benefit of making it more difficult for those who may be curious or experimenting with child abuse on the internet and it will make it much harder for paedophiles to claim they found the material accidentally. This technology is now being looked at by over 16 countries worldwide. We are pleased with the progress which has been made in this area over the past year and we will continue to encourage the providers to take steps to seek to block illegal images wherever possible. The government is satisfied that the ISPs are, or are close to, providing filtering solutions of their own.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) was formed in 1996 following an agreement between the government, police and the ISP industry that a partnership approach was needed to tackle the distribution of child abuse images online. Essentially the IWF operate the only authorised 'hotline' in the UK for the public to report their inadvertent exposure to illegal content on the Internet. They provide a ‘notice and take down’ service to ISPs in the UK so they can remove potentially illegal content from their servers and they work closely with law enforcement agencies at home and abroad to help them trace offenders. As a result of these arrangements we have virtually eradicated the hosting of images of child abuse. Less than 0.4% of potentially illegal content is apparently hosted in the UK, down from 18% in 1997.
You may be aware that we have set up the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre which became operational on 24 April 2006. The Centre will provide a single point of contact for the public, law enforcers, and the communications industry to report targeting of children online, and will offer advice and information to parents and potential victims of abuse 24 hours a day. Based in London with up to 100 staff, it will also carry out proactive investigations and work with police forces around the world to protect children. More details can be found at http://www.ceop.gov.uk/
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (which came into force on 1 May 2004) made grooming a child an offence, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. The offence will be committed after an adult meets or arranges to meet a child with the intention of committing a sex offence, after at least two previous communications with them. We have increased the maximum sentences for possession and distribution of child pornography (offences for possession from 6 months to 5 years and for production and distribution offences from 3 years imprisonment to 10 years). Also, being convicted of a child pornography offence immediately places someone on the Sex Offenders Register, irrespective of sentence.
The UK has consistently taken a lead in raising this issue internationally. As you state, international collaboration is needed. Last year, for example, we used our presidencies of both the G8 and EU to discuss it with international Ministerial colleagues. At the G8 Justice and Home Affairs meeting in June 2005, G8 Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to tackling the abuse of children and redoubling our efforts to remove images of child abuse from the internet. They agreed that action to tackle criminal exploitation of the internet can only be truly effective if taken internationally.
Similarly, the EU meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in September 2005 concluded:-
That the internet offers enormous benefits to children, but also some risks.
That Member States should more effectively co-operate and share good practice in protecting children for example through education and awareness.
Member States should commit to fully exploiting the Interpol International Child Sexual Exploitation Database to proactively protect children.
The database will:
Be a powerful tool in the identifying victims and offenders wherever they are in the world.
Help Interpol and all participating countries to share intelligence on the generation and spread of child abuse images.
Use technology where possible to identify child victims and locations involved.
It will also prevent officers having to view duplicate abuse images already in the system unnecessarily.
Cordella Dawson
