Sajid Javid’s crackdown on net paedophiles who use ‘terrorist tricks’: Minister tells of dark web threat – but reveals 400 are arrested every month
- Abusers use networks of hidden websites and create dozens of fake identities
- The Home Secretary will say that the Government is determined to crack down
- A tool called Project Arachnid has trawled through 1.3bn websites to find images
Paedophiles operating online are becoming as cunning as terrorist gangs as they seek to evade capture, the Home Secretary warns.
Sajid Javid is to reveal how child abusers are using the ‘dark web’ – a network of hidden websites and untraceable online activity – and creating dozens of fake identities in order to evade detection.
But he will insist that the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of online child sexual exploitation, using new tools such as a program known as Project Arachnid that has trawled through 1.3 billion web pages looking for illegal images.
Police are now arresting 400 suspects and safeguarding 500 children every month after a near-doubling of the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command.
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Home Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured) is to reveal how child abusers are using the ‘dark and creating dozens of fake identities in order to evade detection
Mr Javid will tell an audience of technology firms, victims’ charities and law enforcement chiefs tomorrow: ‘These people are using encryption and anonymisation tools to make their detection harder than ever before.
‘They’re jumping from platform to platform, using the dark web and commercial sites, swapping aliases and endlessly creating and then deleting online accounts to try to avoid getting caught.
‘These people are as sophisticated as terrorists at hiding their tracks. But be assured, we are coming after them.’
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The NCA – Britain’s equivalent of the FBI – fears that paedophiles are increasingly working together on numerous online platforms in order to share tips on how they can evade capture.
Director Rob Jones said: ‘Even though there is a co-ordinated and sustained law enforcement effort against child sexual abuse and exploitation, the threat to children is evolving in severity, scale and complexity.
‘The sort of material my officers are discovering is utterly repugnant and the hurt, distress and damage caused to children is indescribable.
An investigation led to ‘depraved’ university academic Dr Matthew Falder (pictured) being jailed after he admitted blackmailing hundreds of people into sending him indecent pictures
‘As we work to keep pace with the challenges we face and sustain momentum, we need the help of partners across the public and private sectors in the UK and internationally to help us protect children and bring those committing these terrible crimes to justice.’
The NCA wants technology firms to do more to stop abuse images being uploaded from phones or computers in the first place, rather than relying on police to get them deleted later.
Chiefs are particularly concerned about the trend for paedophiles watching children overseas being abused to order, over encrypted live-stream videos. The NCA receives up to 80,000 tips annually from overseas law enforcement agencies reporting suspected British paedophiles.
One investigation into ‘the world’s worst website’ took five years and involved painstaking work by the NCA, US Homeland Security, Europol, the Australian Federal Police and listening station GCHQ.
It led this year to ‘depraved’ university academic Dr Matthew Falder being jailed for 32 years after he admitted blackmailing hundreds of people into sending him indecent pictures of themselves, then trading them on sick ‘hurtcore’ forums online.
Last week, Theresa May announced the creation of a cyber centre in Nairobi to help stop Kenyan children being targeted by British paedophiles.
And a British woman was arrested in Cyprus over allegations she abused a baby girl and a young boy in online chats.
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