More than two million indecent images of children online
Wednesday, 28, Apr 2010 12:01
By inthenews.co.uk staff.
A children's charity has today said more than two million indecent online images of children were circulated by 100 child sex offenders convicted in the last 20 months.
The NSPCC said in its 'snapshot' of court cases, all those who were found in possession of the pictures were given criminal convictions, while some of the images went as far as to show babies being raped by adults.
Worryingly, one in four offenders held a position of trust, which allowed them direct contact with children; such as teachers, school workers, clergymen, medical professionals, policemen and a social worker.
The images were all seized by police from across the UK, with ten per cent of those who were convicted having hoarded images of children for five years or more. The NSPCC's study, the first of its kind in the UK, found a third of offenders involved in the court hearings had used peer-to-peer file sharing or distributed pictures of child sex abuse online, and one in six had a conviction for sexually assaulting or grooming a child for sex.
Nearly 50,000 photographs and videos confiscated were in the worst categories of abuse with some showing children and even babies being raped by adults, the children's charity said.
NSPCC head of public affairs and campaigns Diana Sutton said: "The scale of graphic child sex abuse pictures and videos over the internet is very alarming. The number of images seized in these cases is enough to cover the pitch at Wembley Stadium twice over - and this is just a sample.
"Children and babies are being seriously sexually assaulted to feed the demand for these photos and videos. And each time they are viewed, more degradation is heaped on the young victims.
"The NSPCC is calling on the next government to work with industry and law enforcement agencies on an action plan to combat peer-to-peer file sharing.
"Making the internet safer for children should be a priority for all parliamentary candidates during the general election campaign."