Two Million Indecent Images and Videos Shared by Sex Offenders

The NSPCC have found that over two million indecent images were shared between 100 offenders convicted within the last 20 months.

Research also confirmed that approximately one in four offenders held a position of trust within the community. Such roles included teachers, Police officers, medical professionals and social workers.

An estimated 10% of the convicted had been in possession of indecent imagery for five or more years before being caught. One third of offenders had distributed indecent material online and one in six had abused or groomed a child.

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Obscene Punlications Act used with Online Chat

An individual has been charged with nine offences under the Obscene Publications Act (1959) in relation to online chat material.

According to the law, any publications that "tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely ... to read, see or hear" the content are counted as an offence.

The individual has also been charged with two counts of making and four counts of possessing indecent material.

A Detective Sergeant from the Kent Police force insisted that the Law should be changed to cover the "legislative gap in terms of written fantasy material specifically about child rape and murder".

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NHS hit by data stealing worm

A worm capable of transfering sensitive data to remote servers has infected over 1,100 computers in the NHS network.

The amount of stolen data is thought to be much more serious than just the four gigabytes of data researchers say the NHS has lost. The sensitive information contains browser cookies, logon and banking details.

Vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple Quicktime player have been cited as the root cause for the worm infestation.

See more details here.

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UN Cybercrime Debate

A UN commitee cannot decide on a strategy for targeting and preventing cybercrime.

Some parties voiced that a new agreement must be created, whilst others thought it best to only modify the existing strategy.

More information can be found here.

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SCD9 will fight obscene publications and related problems

Experts in several different fields have been brought together into one London unit named SCD9.

The aim of the unit is to tackle crime in areas such as trafficking, prostitiuion, violence, drugs and other relevant crimes. Approximately 39 officers with the necessary experience have been hired to work within the unit.

One area of the unit will also focus on obscene publications, extreme pornography and sharing of indecent images of children via the Internet. It is hoped that the research and work done in this part of the unit will cut down the overall problem of indecent imagery and related sex offences.

SCD9 has been criticised as being a waste of Police resouces and money. However, the Metropolitan Police are confident it will make a significant difference in the fight against crime.

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800,000 affected by NHS 'computer error'

The NHS Blood and Transfusion service has today apologised for a computer error that lead to database records of over 800,000 people being misunderstood.

The database (used for storing details of organ donation) was found to contain incorrect information regarding the transplant wishes of those 800,000 people. Data had been imported from the DVLA and incorrectly processed so that some people had organs removed without personal consent and vice versa.

The NHS stressed that only 21 people had died with incorrect details on their records. In the instances that organs were removed, family members gave their permission to carry the proceedure out.

The technical error that is thought to have caused the problems affects only those who registered preferences on a driving license application form.

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Battle between Facebook and CEOP continues

Another verbal attack was made towards online social network Facebook by Jim Gamble of CEOP today. In a briefing with reports, he accused Facebook of being 'arrogant' and questioned their interests in collective child protection.

The disagreement between Facebook and CEOP has continued for months and has developed over the placement of a panic button on the site. The CEOP panic button allows any young social network users to make a complaint about a certain user or users should they feel uncomfortable, threatened or scared as a result of negative behaviour. Such behaviour can involve bullying, insults, general threats or the unwanted attention of a potential sex offender.

Facebook insists that the website has its own reporting system in operation and that the CEOP panic button does not offer any advantage to the social networking site. As a result, they refuse to have the CEOP branded button on Facebook.

In relation to sex offences, the question must be asked whether a panic button is really the solution to online predators posing as younger men attractive to younger females. Some would argue that general lack of awareness and naivity on a childs part would make them trusting of an offender, and that they therefore wouldn't use the button to report grooming or other indecent behaviour.

Facebook and CEOP will meet during 12th April in an attempt to discuss and resolve the situation.

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