Prison threat to internet chiefs over child sex websites

Internet bosses are being threatened with jail if they allow their websites to be used by paedophiles promoting child sex abuse.

Ministers are targeting internet service providers in response to new figures published later this month that show a huge rise in sex offenders networking in cyberspace.

Between April 2001 and March 2002, the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) received more than 3,000 complaints about images of child sex abuse on the internet.

Investigators in its sex offenders unit said these figures show an increase of 23 per cent on the previous 12 months. These complaints were referred to NCIS by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the industry's self-regulating body.

This comes as the Government prepares to release national figures disclosing the total number of paedophiles in Britain. This week, a Home Office report will detail for the first time the numbers and whereabouts of child sex abusers – a move prompted by the murder of Sarah Payne.

There are increasing concerns about the activities of paedophiles, particularly those who use mobile phones and the internet to target their victims.

The IWF has been brought in to advise the Government on its plans to prosecute internet service providers who advertise the names of bulletin boards that feature child pornography.

Until now, internet bosses could be investigated under child protection laws only if they failed to remove indecent images of children from their websites.

The names of 50 bulletin boards linked to child sex abuse have already been circulated to internet service providers.

The Home Office's taskforce on child protection on the internet has also launched an advertising campaign aimed at parents and young people to highlight the dangers of surfing the net.

It has already announced plans to prosecute paedophiles who have not committed a sexual offence but who are involved in ''grooming'' young children for sexual activity.

There have been several major investigations into child pornography on the internet that have resulted in the arrest of paedophiles.

In May, 36 people were arrested in a crackdown on internet surfers who access child pornography. Officers from 30 forces around the UK searched 43 houses and flats and seized 30 computers.

This followed intelligence reports from the US authorities that child porn websites were receiving hits from British surfers.

Last year, seven paedophiles were jailed following a police operation code-named Cathedral, which focused on a closed internet paedophile ring known as the Wonderland Club.

The IWF said that at least 95 per cent of indecent images featuring children were from ''offshore'' sites, although the majority of complainants were from the UK.

The organisation said it had been ''flooded'' with complaints of indecent images of child abuse.

"This is an ongoing process to increase the stranglehold on those areas of the internet that attract paedophiles and child pornographers," said Peter Robbins, the chief executive of the IWF.

The Home Office said the police had to adapt to cope with the increasing use of new technology by paedophiles such as mobile phones that plug into the internet.