Published: 18 November 2005
Advise on Online Abuse
New guidance to protect children using chatrooms and search engines has been published by the Home Office. Internet service providers have helped develop the guides to create a safer online environment for children when they use moderated chat services or search engines.
The guidance says that providers should:
offer users a way of reporting material that is illegal or potentially harmful to children;
offer content filtering on search engines;
manually review and approve websites included in search services aimed at children;
consider whether they need human or automatic moderation for chatrooms;
ensure where necessary staff who come into contact with children have had relevant Criminal Records Bureau checks.
Publication of the guides coincides with the Protecting Children Online EU/Virtual Global Taskforce conference in Belfast, aimed at getting businesses, law enforcers and experts in the EU and around the world to work together to protect children.
The Virtual Global Taskforce was created in 2003 as a direct response to lessons learned from investigations into on-line child abuse around the world and is an international alliance of law enforcement agencies working together to make the internet a safer place.
Investigators, industry figures and child protection specialists from over 20 different countries have been sharing their expertise on limiting access to child abuse images, safeguarding children online and tracking down and protecting children identified in abuse images.
Paul Goggins, Home Office Minister and Chair of the Government's Taskforce on Child Protection on the Internet, said: "Countries across the EU and around the world are committed to making the internet safe for children and cracking down on paedophiles' use of the internet.
I want to make sure that by working across international boundaries and involving the internet industry, we keep children safe from abuse in the UK and the rest of the world.
These guides will ensure safer online standards for our children.
The internet is a great tool for children with massive benefits for our society, but we know that paedophiles will target children in any setting they can.
Our message to them is clear - there is no place for online abuse anywhere in the world, and our police are one step ahead in the fight to protect children."
Mr Goggins also announced the appointment of National Crime Squad Deputy Director Jim Gamble as Chief Executive of the UK's new Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which will be operational from 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.
Some of the UK's best known communications businesses are already partners in the Virtual Global Taskforce, including AOL, Microsoft, BT, Vodafone and Lycos. The Football Association recently signed up to help protect young football fans online.
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