Police around the world are planning to monitor conversations on internet chat rooms so they can stop paedophiles from grooming their victims over the web.

The idea emerged at a summit in London of the Virtual Global Task Force, set up six months ago to make the internet safer for young people.

Police in the UK, US and Australia will make use of the different time zones to monitor the web 24 hours a day.

If a dialogue is potentially dangerous, officers may warn both online parties.

The National Crime Squad in the UK and the FBI in America are heading the effort to set up the full-time surveillance.

They are both involved in the Virtual Global Task Force, along with US Customs, the FBI, the Canadian Mounted Police, Australian Federal Police and Interpol.


The group, which aims to improve international policing of the internet, will reveal further details of the initiative on Wednesday.

One proposal is that a symbol may appear on computer screens to let chatroom users know that they are being overheard.

BBC crime correspondent Neil Bennett said police may then intervene if, for example, someone is being asked for their name and address.

He says the police are also stepping up efforts to persuade banks to withdraw credit cards from people who use them to pay for child pornography on websites.

Tink Palmer, policy officer at the children's charity Barnardo's, welcome the idea of monitoring chat rooms.

Police sting

She said if paedophiles knew their internet conversation was being observed by a police officer it could stop them "in their tracks".

"If we can get to people who are starting off along this road, then we can work with them before it becomes an ingrained pattern of behaviour.

"People say 'what about civil liberties?' but you have a virtual world out there - we have to police that to make it as safe as we can," she said.

John Carr, internet adviser to the children's charity NCH, said he hoped the idea would scare potential offenders.

"It is like undercover policing - the bad guys will not know when they are being monitored," he said.

The NSPCC's internet safety advisor Christine Atkinson said the project was an "important step forward in protecting children".

The National Crime Squad, which initiated the virtual task force, has worked in partnership with overseas agencies to combat paedophilia before, most notably on Operation Ore.


It has identified over 7,000 suspects and led to more than 1,200 convictions in the UK alone.

The operation also led to the development of the task force's international police sting, known as Operation Pin, last year.

Forces set up sites appearing to offer child pornography.

Users are told they could face 10 years in jail and may have their details circulated to 180 countries.

Source: BBC News

Just hope they don't go beyond paedophiles and start taking note of anyone whose ideas MI5 and 6 think are are dangers to social security, I mean it was only a decade ago that anarchists and socialists were having their mail opened before it was delivered to them, to see if they had links with the USSR etc.

its a good idea and about time

I am glad to see that this is making progress. After they catch these sickos, they need to castrate them!

How about educating children to be more wary of chat rooms?

i'm with moe.
hello? don't just let your kids do whatever because the law will protect them. teach your stupid kids not to give out information on the web.

Pedophiles should not be punished for doing something the are psychologically forced to do. What they need is extensive therapy. Many pedophiles grow up with unhappy childhoods, and in effect, never leave them. They stay attracted to those who are similar to what they used to get "crushes" for, because of psychological problems. Although genetic factors may pay a role, pedophilia is usually caused by childhood traumas, or other such things.

Pedophilia is genetically predisposed just like hetero and homo-sexuality are. While they may not be able to stop themselves from wanting children, they can damn sure stop themselves from acting on it. Once that happens the only "Cure" is a bullet..

i support the idea of chat room monitoring Its not invasion of privacy or anything cause its on a public chat room where everyone can listen in.
Yea but i do think the cops are too hard on them cause its just a psychological problem (previous member mention it) I think they need some intense therapy.But we also need to protect the children so i think protection goes first.

paedophiles are the worst ailment this planet has, to prey on innocence is sick and they need to be taught a lesson, this country has a very strange sentencing strategy concerning paedophiles and i am disgusted by it, i have thought of alternatives


1. summary labotomy and left to roam the streets with a IM A NONCE tattoo in bright orange on the forehead

2. build a very large enclosure and daily ferry them in, bring all the victims and victims families and anyone else with a distaste of this scum and give each person a large stick with a big nail in the end, at the sound of the first bell each person must rush forward and nail as many as these things as possible, at the second bell everyone stops and a score is tallied, at the third bell its finish off the rest

3. send them into space and have them ejected in orbit so that they burn on re-

entry

Are they not human? Do they not bleed when pricked, as do we? One thing that we could do, besides killing them, is to give them heavy doses of drugs that suppress sexual instincts. This would stop their urges. By killing them what are we proving? That we can be bloody and unmerciful, simply because another has problems that affect us? Regardless of what you think, it is caused by deep psychological problems, and therefore, is curable, but only through intense (probably lasting a whole lifetime) therapy.

a waste of resource and money, smoke the lot of em, let god sort em out

If police are listening to us, then listen to them. Get a scanner and tune into their frequency

interesting logic that. The police also have attack dogs helos, and submachine guns. Youd better stalk up dowdy.

I am in complete agreement with lottie, kill em all, when you talk about predisposition and they are mentally unwell your forgetting one thing that seperates me from you and us from them, its choice, plain and simple, we go through life making choices on a daily basis, its these choices that make us the people we are and its free will that is predisposed to us, paedophiles are a plague upon this planet and to say that they cant help themselves is complete and utter crap, they should make the choice to end their pathetic lives the minute their thought processes stray from the normal, kill all of them, I would gladly pitch each and every one off the planet

Personally I think it's a good idea. I go on MSN chat every so often and sometimes the chat just gets out of control. No need to explain people know what I'm talking about.