The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre

.... is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. That means we are part of UK policing and very much about tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces.

But our approach is truly holistic. Walk through the CEOP Centre today and within any one team you will find police officers specialising in this area of criminality working with professionals from the wider child protection community and industry. You will find seconded staff from organisations such as the NSPCC, teams sponsored by the likes of VISA and SERCO and experts from government and corporations such as Microsoft offering specialist advice and guidance.

That approach is dedicated to building up intelligence that in turn drives the business, informs our operational deployments, steers our CEOP Academy programmes to law enforcement, child protection and educational sectors and drives our dedicated Thinkuknow programme for children and parents of all ages.

It is an approach that sees the development of specialist areas such as our Behavioural Analysis Unit, our approach to victim identification or the development of our Child Trafficking Unit as well as filtering into all areas of our outreach activities such as the Most Wanted initiative and our public awareness plans.

In fact the real lifeblood of the CEOP Centre is intelligence - how offenders operate and think, how children and young people behave and how technological advances are developing - all are integral to what we are about and what we deliver.

But similarly our results would not be possible without inclusion. So we are about opening the policing doors to new ways of thinking around this crime, working with industry, government, children's charities and the wider policing community to explore all options and possibilities. In fact we want and will explore all options because we believe you can never stand still when dealing with such a complex, ever changing issue and where apathy can and does result in devastating consequences.

Latest online offender 'grooming' tactics revealed

UK centre for tackling the sexual abuse of children advises parents to increase vigilance as latest intelligence report is published

Online child sex offenders are using more intimidating tactics to engage with, exploit and abuse children in an increasingly converged technological environment according to the UK's police agency dedicated to tackling child sex abuse ? the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.

In its latest strategic intelligence dossier, the organisation reports an increase in online offenders using threats such as hacking online profiles and email accounts and using blackmail techniques as a response to an increasingly empowered internet generation who are recognising and reporting online 'grooming' behaviour to the police agency.

To date 2.2 million children and young people have seen the Centre's Thinkuknow education programme and together with public awareness around international law enforcement activity in tracing and arresting internet offenders, this is resulting in offenders changing their tactics to approach and groom children.

The emergence of 'social sites' is having an effect on online offending patterns too. Websites which incorporate personal profiles, social networking, instant messaging, games and photo sharing into the same online space (rather than previously distinct services or applications), mean that information gathering on a child and grooming can take place in one online environment.

According to the intelligence document - based on reports submitted to the Centre from young people, adults, domestic and international law enforcement agencies over the course of a 12 month period - instant messaging applications remain the most common area for grooming to be detected (56% of reports) with social networking sites following second (11.4% of reports). As instant messaging applications are increasingly embedded into social networking sites, the Centre expects to see an increase in reports of grooming in these environments.

In addition, with a growing move towards wireless broadband in the home and wi-fi zones in public areas, young people are increasingly accessing the internet via mobile phones and laptops from a variety of locations.

Despite the trends, the CEOP Centre insists that parents should be concerned but not alarmed at these new developments and parents themselves can take a few simple steps to help keep their children safe whilst surfing the internet.

"As parents can't always keep an eye on what their children are doing on the internet, it is more important than ever that they have an open dialogue with their children about what they are doing online and to give them the skills to navigate safely in the online world as much as the physical world.

Parents can ask their child to show them around the www.thinkuknow.co.uk website and go to the age-appropriate sections or watch one of our films. Parents need to make sure children understand to keep their online friends online, only chat to and webcam with people they know in the real world and most importantly, know how to report to the CEOP Centre if there are concerns about someone's online behaviour towards their child.

Whilst we can empower children and keep parents up to speed with the latest information on this crime, the online industry also has a role to play. By adopting our unique 'report abuse' button into the online environments where children go, reporting directly to CEOP will not only be easier for children but will send out a deterrent message to 'would-be' offenders that abuse will not be tolerated in that online space."

Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre;

Other key findings from the Centre's latest intelligence report include:

For more information visit:                  www.ceop.gov.uk

To download a copy of the CEOP Centre's Strategic Overview 2007-08, visit:
www.ceop.gov.uk/publications

View the CEOP corporate film:          www.ceop.gov.uk/mediacentre/video.asp