Home Office explains how to protect kids online

The publication coincides with the Protecting Children Online EU/Virtual Global Taskforce conference, taking place in Belfast yesterday and today.

In particular the guidance suggests that ISPs 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.

"These guides will ensure safer online standards for our children,” said Paul Goggins, Home Office Minister and Chair of the Government's Taskforce on Child Protection on the Internet.

“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," he added.

The Minister also provided more details of a new Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre which will be operational from April next year.

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

The CEO of the new centre will be National Crime Squad Deputy Director Jim Gamble, said Mr Goggins.