Only one in 15 online child porn suspects is arrested: Chief constables accused of treating offences as a 'low priority'
Only one in every 15 people caught viewing paedophile images online is arrested, it emerged last night.
Child protection experts alerted police to 2,866 suspects last year but just 192 were detained.
The shocking figures sparked calls for more action to tackle a menace that chief constables apparently see as a low priority.
The NSPCC said offenders should feel the ‘full force of the law’ because of the strong link between viewing vile images and attacks on children. In other developments:
It said some of its warnings, which were sent to forces in Britain and overseas, contained information about children in immediate danger.
A further 600 cases were sent to social services departments after experts were alerted to images of abuse on shadowy websites and in chatrooms.
The Daily Mail has been campaigning for an ‘opt-in’ system where those who want to consume any type of pornography online have to tell their provider they wish to do so.
But the spotlight on major search engines has intensified after the murders of Tia Sharp and April Jones.
Both Tia and April were killed by men
who were voracious consumers of perverted images but police have warned
they simply do not have the resources to properly investigate those
caught using the banned images.
Peter Davies, who leads Ceop, has also suggested police are struggling to deal with the torrent of internet offences.
Speaking recently, he said: ‘We need to arrest the ones that pose the highest risk and I would, if I had the time and capacity, like to see every one arrested.
'We are dealing with a situation where we have an unpleasant and uncomfortable proportion of our population who somehow seem to think this is OK.’
The figures are a blow to the credibility of Ceop which will soon become part of the National Crime Agency.
Its software is able to map people accessing child abuse images, with around 100 individuals breaking the law at any one time.
Ceop received 18,887 reports of
child abuse in 2012-13, an increase of 14 per cent on the previous
year. The unit also invests in educating children and parents about safe
internet practices.
Jon Brown of the NSPCC said: ‘When agencies like Ceop track down people who are downloading and sharing images of child abuse these offenders should feel the full force of the law, so it is very worrying that so few people are actually being arrested.
‘There is ever-growing evidence of a worrying link between looking at this vile kind of material and committing other serious sexual assaults.
'If the Government is serious about stamping out these horrific images they need to give the police the means to do the job.’
Peter Saunders, of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, said: ‘These are difficult crimes to prosecute and we’ve got to wake up to what we are letting happen to our children.
‘The culture has to change – all the agencies are failing our children and we need a Government that says enough is enough.’
Child protection expert John Carr said the Ceop tip-offs range from an individual downloading child abuse images to ‘something on the edge of murdering a child’.
Yesterday, Coral Jones, April’s mother, said: ‘Google and the internet giants have to start paying to police the internet, these sites have to be removed.’
Google insists it has a ‘zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse content’ and ‘reports it to the appropriate law enforcement authorities’.
Last night, Ceop sought to play down the significance of the very low number of arrests, suggesting suspects may have been arrested without police informing Ceop or other action taken.
Child protection experts alerted police to 2,866 suspects last year but just 192 were detained.
The shocking figures sparked calls for more action to tackle a menace that chief constables apparently see as a low priority.
The NSPCC said offenders should feel the ‘full force of the law’ because of the strong link between viewing vile images and attacks on children. In other developments:
- David Cameron said he was ‘sickened by the spread of child pornography’ and it was time for firms such as Google to ‘stop making excuses’;
- His adviser on childhood told the Mail that the Government could examine making transmitting the vile images a criminal offence;
- The family of murder victim April Jones said web giants should fund the policing of the internet.
It said some of its warnings, which were sent to forces in Britain and overseas, contained information about children in immediate danger.
More...
- Rapists are posting sickening trophy videos of attacks online, charity warns
- At last, PM cracks down on net porn: Cameron will order Google and internet rivals to rid the web of child pornography
A further 600 cases were sent to social services departments after experts were alerted to images of abuse on shadowy websites and in chatrooms.
The Daily Mail has been campaigning for an ‘opt-in’ system where those who want to consume any type of pornography online have to tell their provider they wish to do so.
But the spotlight on major search engines has intensified after the murders of Tia Sharp and April Jones.
April Jones (left) and Tia Sharp (right) were murdered by men who kept and had easy access to child porn
Peter Davies, who leads Ceop, has also suggested police are struggling to deal with the torrent of internet offences.
Speaking recently, he said: ‘We need to arrest the ones that pose the highest risk and I would, if I had the time and capacity, like to see every one arrested.
'We are dealing with a situation where we have an unpleasant and uncomfortable proportion of our population who somehow seem to think this is OK.’
The figures are a blow to the credibility of Ceop which will soon become part of the National Crime Agency.
Its software is able to map people accessing child abuse images, with around 100 individuals breaking the law at any one time.
The arrest figures were released by the Child
Exploitation and Online Protection Centre which is responsible for child
safety on the internet
Jon Brown of the NSPCC said: ‘When agencies like Ceop track down people who are downloading and sharing images of child abuse these offenders should feel the full force of the law, so it is very worrying that so few people are actually being arrested.
‘There is ever-growing evidence of a worrying link between looking at this vile kind of material and committing other serious sexual assaults.
Stuart Hazell, 37, (left) who dramatically
changed his plea and admitted murdering the 12-year-old Tia Sharp and
Mark Bridget (right) who was found guilty of abducting and murdering
April Jones
Peter Saunders, of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, said: ‘These are difficult crimes to prosecute and we’ve got to wake up to what we are letting happen to our children.
‘The culture has to change – all the agencies are failing our children and we need a Government that says enough is enough.’
Child protection expert John Carr said the Ceop tip-offs range from an individual downloading child abuse images to ‘something on the edge of murdering a child’.
Yesterday, Coral Jones, April’s mother, said: ‘Google and the internet giants have to start paying to police the internet, these sites have to be removed.’
Google insists it has a ‘zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse content’ and ‘reports it to the appropriate law enforcement authorities’.
Last night, Ceop sought to play down the significance of the very low number of arrests, suggesting suspects may have been arrested without police informing Ceop or other action taken.
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