Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)
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UK national centre for tackling the sexual abuse of children announces record 3rd year results
BEHIND EVERY STATISTIC, A YOUNG VICTIM
346 children have been safeguarded in the last three years, the UK's national centre for tackling the sexual abuse of children - the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre - announced today.
139 were safeguarded in the last 12 months while over 700 suspected offenders have been arrested since the organisation was launched in April 2006. 334 suspected offenders were arrested in the last year alone.
The figures - published in the organisation's Annual Review for 2008/09 and covering work specifically involving CEOP teams - shows a year-on-year increase as more young children are safeguarded from circumstances of horrific abuse.
As the organisation focuses on the UK's most high risk child sexual offenders, the CEOP response - in association with local and international forces - has also dismantled or disrupted 166 offender networks since 2006, 82 in the last year.
CEOP also reports that over 4,000,000 UK school children have now seen its unique Thinkuknow education programme about online safety since its launch in 2006, with bespoke resources available for children aged five to 16 years.
Figures, however, only tell part of the story. As the battle against child sex offenders continues apace, the tactics being deployed by those who target children are also evolving.
From studying 5,686 reports received in the last 12 months from the public, industry, charities and other parts of the police, as well as feedback from its education programme, offender interviews and other sources of intelligence, the CEOP Centre reveals the increasing degree to which technology is being used by offenders to target young victims and mask behaviour.
In 2008, CEOP reported that the most significant trend affecting child sexual abuse online was that of convergence such as social networking sites with instant messaging and photo and video sharing. Now in 2009 hardware is following the same route, with people increasingly accessing the internet from a range of devices including computers, games consoles and phones, which provide a much greater freedom of access and movement and often include integrated technology such as cameras. As a result, internet access is possible from wherever the user may be, placing new and additional responsibilities on parents.
That means that more and more children need to be directly educated on necessary safety measures. CEOP continues to reach out to parents, teachers and other practitioners to help them better understand the threats and adopt the necessary safety steps.
Similarly, CEOP is developing strategies to target offenders who are increasingly trying to use technology to hide their activities such as 'piggybacking' unsecured wireless accounts and hacking.
CEOP also reports that:
* of the 5,686 reports received during the past 12 months - nearly 50% of them from children and adults reporting on behalf of a child - on average four a day still require immediate action as a result of a child being at risk;
* grooming is still the number one offence reported to CEOP, although whereas before this was done primarily via instant messaging, a fast-growing trend is exploiting children through vast, integrated social networking sites;
* offenders are increasingly looking to travel to avoid detection - 73% of missing and high risk offenders referred to the CEOP Centre during the past year had either travelled or were located overseas;
* and offenders are increasingly using peer-to-peer networks and newsgroups rather than commercial pay-per-view sites in order to share images of sexual abuse.
Jim Gamble is Chief Executive of the CEOP Centre and leads on Child Protection for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO):
"It is easy to be alarmist about this area of criminality and to suggest that technology is opening doors for offenders to abuse children quicker than we can close them. Well today we put a clear marker down for all to read. If you are a parent, child, social worker, teacher, police officer or indeed an offender then think of this: every fact and figure we publish today is not just a credit to the CEOP teams but are the results of multi-agency, cross-sector collaboration that is proactively closing those opportunities once and for all.
"Over 4,000,000 UK school children have now been empowered to watch for the dangers and to report them if they feel worried or under threat. More than 25,000 volunteers from teachers to police officers have worked with us and continue to do so in building that programme, to reach not only more children but also to refresh our lesson plans and to go back with new contemporary advice.
"Almost 8,000 professionals have walked through our doors since we opened to receive specialist training and in every force we now have specialist points of contact to share intelligence, identify targets and take action. Not only that but over 50 other organisations from major corporations to specialist service providers have come forward to creatively work with us in making a difference.
"And increasingly our work in areas such as South East Asia and with colleagues in Europe, Australia, Canada and the US is not only shrinking the world for the offender to operate in but is developing and delivering imaginative solutions that are all about inclusion and cross-border application.
"This is not about technology - this is about people. There is no distinction between the online and offline worlds. This is about the behaviour of offenders manipulating any environment to abuse children. Child protection is everybody's business and we should afford our children the same protection online that we would give them in the park or playground - that is our approach and that collective response has already hit home for over 700 suspected offenders and safeguarded almost 350 children."
The CEOP Centre is the UK's national centre for tackling the abuse of children. A copy of its full Annual Review can be found at http://www.ceop.gov.uk/publications Parents can register for up-to-date safety advice via the site.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The following is a full summary of all performance figures from the CEOP Centre over the past 12 months:
* 139 children have been safeguarded from sexual abuse either directly or indirectly as the result of CEOP activity - 20 of whom have been identified through the examination of child abuse images;
* 334 suspected child sex offenders have been arrested - for offences ranging from possession of indecent images to rape - as a result of intelligence reports fro CEOP and/or through the deployment of CEOP resources;
* 82 high risk sex offender networks have been disrupted or dismantled as a result of CEOP activity;
* 79 of the UK's highest risk child sex offenders have been located as a direct result of the CEOP Centre's UK and Overseas Tracker Teams;
* 5,686 intelligence reports have been received by the CEOP Centre - a culmination of reports through the public, online 'Report Abuse' mechanism, from the online and mobile industries and law enforcement partners in the UK and overseas;
* 3734 child protection professionals have attended CEOP's specialist training programme
2. A cumulative total of the main areas of CEOP business over the past three years shows:
2006/07 07/08 08/09 TOTAL
Number of children
safeguarded 76 131 139 346
Number of arrests as a result of intelligence
reports from CEOP and/or through the deployment
of CEOP resources 83 297 334 714
Number of high risk sex offender networks
disrupted and dismantled 29 55 82 166
Number of child protection professionals attending
specialist training courses 1457 2697 3734 7888
3. The CEOP Centre works in both the online and offline environments to protect children from sexual exploitation. Full information on all areas of work as well as online safety messages and access to online reporting can be found at http://www.ceop.gov.uk
For further information:
Miriam Rich, Vicky Gillings, Clive Michel or Hannah Bickers on 0870 000 3434.
