New Tactic In On-Line Pedophile Hunt

["Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3329567.stm

- Police to trap online paedophiles -
 
An international police operation is being launched to catch paedophiles who
search online for images of children.
 
Police forces in several countries, including Britain, North America, and
Australia are setting up websites appearing to offer internet porn. 

But users coming to the sites are told that they are breaking the law and
that the police have their details which may be circulated to 180 countries.


Operation Pin is the first such attempt to alert offenders to their crime. 

Police want to deter paedophiles from going online in a bid to disrupt the
lucrative market in pornographic images of children. 

Assistant Chief Constable Jim Gamble, of the National Crime Squad in the UK,
told the BBC that many new child victims are being abused every day to
satisfy demand. 

Anyone caught out by these new sites is liable to have their details
circulated via the international police agency, Interpol, to 180 countries. 

The police already have the details of 7,200 internet sex offenders as a
result of Operation Ore, which followed the closure of a US-based child porn
"gateway" in 1999. 

UK Home Office figures suggest Operation Ore has led so far to 3,205
computer searches. 

These resulted in 723 people being charged. Some 277 have already been
convicted. 

Operation Pin comes just over a week after police said they were considering
launching a computer hard drive amnesty as part of a targeting of internet
sex offenders. 

The scheme, which would operate in a similar way to a gun amnesty, would aim
to prevent child abuse by getting people who have images of children to
volunteer for counselling.
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- SCHRADE in Akron

The Council For Secular Humanism
http://www.secularhumanism.org/