New tactic targets online abuse

3 March 2009 02:14pm

Child protection experts pledged to flush out paedophiles who profit from selling vile images online by focusing on their finances.

Officials said they would use techniques modelled on counter-terrorism investigations to root out secretive online groups.

They unveiled a European financial group to track and disrupt an illegal internet industry estimated to be worth more than £6 million every year.

Experts have already piloted tactics that detect suspicious patterns of transactions by criminals who profit from the distribution of child sex images.

They want to use greater access to details of financial transactions to identify, locate and safeguard victims of abuse as well as catching the perpetrators.

The coalition was launched at an international conference in London by European Commission vice president Jacques Barrot and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. It brought together credit card companies, technology firms and police forces from across the continent.

The move will be led by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) Centre, based in central London, and funded by the European Commission.

Jim Gamble, who heads Ceop, said criminal gangs have abandoned the trade in child abuse images because increased policing makes the risks high and rewards low.

He said: "Individual organisations, members of the financial sector and law enforcement agencies have worked hard to undermine the activities of those who sold images of child abuse as commodities. As a result, the organised crime element has diminished year on year as the risk increased and the profit reduced.

"Now by applying the individual lessons learnt and by coming together with our combined skills, focusing on collective objectives, we plan to eradicate the remnants of that industry once and for all."

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