The Home Office today announced a £1m advertising campaign to warn children and their parents of the dangers of chat-room paedophiles, "without demonising the Internet".

The government web site www.thinkuknow.co.uk has been redeveloped and updated with information and advice for young people who use the Internet. The Home Office advertising campaign includes TV spots in January, supported by radio and online advertising.

The campaign builds on last year's safer surfing message, hailed by the Government as a success, resulting in an "11 per cent increase in awareness among children to not give out their personal details online and a 12 per cent increase among parents of safety measures for children using the Internet".

This year, the government is spending less money - the budget last year for the safer surfing campaign was £1.5m. And with a chunk going on TV advertising, the money will surely go less far than before. Unless advertising rates have really plummeted.

Model Practice

Today, the Home Office also publishes the world's first "Models of Good Practice", an advisory for providers of Internet content and services who "offer chat, instant messaging and web-based services. They provide sound steps to follow to make their services safer for children".

The Models are welcomed by Nicholas Lansman, Secretary General of the Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA UK).

"Just like the offline world, the online world has its hazards. ISPA and its members want to make the UK Internet as safe as possible for younger users. Our work with the Home Office has produced another first for the UK Internet industry. The publication of this good practice shows ISPA's and the Government's commitment to making the UK the safest place for children to go online."

The UK government wants to make paedophile 'grooming' of children an offence, but outside the Internet chat-rooms, it is difficult to see how one can amass enough evidence to construct a solid court case. There is more on the proposals on this government web site, www.protectingthepublic.homeoffice.gov.uk. And here is a Guardian Q+A on the bill.

So how common is sexual grooming on the Internet? Does anyone have any literature/stats about the prevalence of Internet chat-room grooming? The victims, in the few examples of such predators to reach the public eye, appear almost entirely to be teenage girls, which doesn't make it any better. But maybe, this is where the warnings should go.

Most child protection experts will tell you that predatory paedophiles are rare, and thankfully the likes of Roy Whiting, notorious murderer of Sarah Payne, are very rare indeed.

Child Abuse Material

Most sexual abuse comes from within the home, we are told. But such sexual abuse is common, affecting perhaps as many as one in 10 children: according to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), there are more than 110,000 convicted child sex offenders living in the UK alone. Most experts say that there is massive under-reporting of child sex offences in the UK and, this under-reporting is even more pronounced in countries which are less open on the problem, such Germany and France.

But even if chat-room grooming is rare, it is clear that online child pornography or "child abuse material" as the police are now calling it, is a very serious problem indeed. First, the consumers are colluding in a serious crime, where the victim's assault is recorded, effectively for ever.

Second, child porn consumers can also be child rapists. Take for example, the case of the 7,000 UK subscribers to a US child pornography site, whose names and addresses were supplied to UK police by the FBI.

Fewer than 1,000 people, from an old - 1999 - list have been questioned and/or charged. According to US research, cited by Donald Findlater, a therapist involved in the rehabilitation of convicted paedophiles, as many as a third of child pornography consumers are, concurrently child sexual abusers. Which means that, conservatively, more than 2,000 children were being sexually abused in 1999 by the 7,000 British subscribers.

Child pornography was very rare until the advent of video in the 1980s, and still very hard to obtain until the advent of the Internet. Now it's comparatively easy to find: The great unanswered question is: will this make child sexual abuse even more common?

Donald Findlater believes it can. Speaking last month at a City University-hosted debate, Paedophiles: Reform or Revenge, he pointed to the proliferation of outlets through the Internet for people with deviant sexual fantasies. We share his concern. Once upon a time, there were no outlets to suggest that fantasies of child sex were anything other than perverted and 'solus'. Now, there are, admittedly underground, support structures, with paedophile networks, and easy-to-access masturbatory material. Which means plenty of to turn fantasy into crime.

If you are a child abuser or a potential abuser it is never too late to stop or to seek help. Here, Stop It Now! UK and Ireland runs a telephone helpline, offering "advice and support to people who suspect abuse and to those seeking help to stop their own abusive thoughts and behaviour". The number is 0800 1000 900. In America, STOP IT NOW! US also provides similar services.

Also if you have any suspicions that a child is being sexually abused, call NSPCC Child Protection Helpline on 0808 800 5000 or Crime Stoppers on 0800 555111.

Finally, if you encounter child pornography online, be sure to report it to the Internet Watch Foundation. ®

Related links

Home Office press release
NSPCC: Danielle trial highlights child porn sex attack link
BBC: Child Porn arrests after delay
Child porn 'librarian' jailed for two years
International Net paedophile ring smashed by UK police
Paedophile says why he loves the Net