Child protection on-line: Government plans new Centre

The Centre's aim will be to reduce the harm caused to children, families and societies by child abuse facilitated through the internet.

The centre is supported by the members of the Home Secretary's Internet Task Force, including the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Internet Watch Foundation, children's charities and the internet industry.

The Centre will be attached to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which comes into being on 1st April 2006 (subject to the passage of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill through Parliament), and the Centre should be operational by that date. It will be staffed by specialist police officers as well as child protection and internet industry experts, and will be a focal point for the on-line element of child protection work.

The new Centre will provide a single 24/7 point of contact for the public, law enforcers, industry, and other organisations for reporting targeting of children on-line. It will offer information and advice to victims and potential victims of abuse and parents, and assess and disseminate international and domestic intelligence on on-line and off-line offenders.

It will also implement crime prevention and crime reduction strategies designed to reduce the harm caused by on-line child abuse, and undertake proactive investigations to identify high priority targets, and manage the national database of child abuse images ("Childbase") and implement links to other systems.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said: "Protecting children is a key priority for the Government, and that applies on-line as well as off-line. On-line abuse by definition crosses geographical police force boundaries – so it makes much more sense to tackle the problem at national level."

John Carr of NCH the children's charity, and a member of the Government's Internet Task Force, said: "This National Centre marks a big step forward in tackling online child abuse. It's the first example anywhere in the world of the police, the industry, child welfare bodies and the Government working together under one roof to tackle internet child abuse."