Advice on Staying Safe
The Avon and Somerset Police have a dedicated team focusing on the issues around Internet Safety and offences relating to children. The team have forged links with schools throughout the South West and their surrounding police forces. Advice can be sought from the Grid Safety site or relevant police force Internet sites.
Legal Issues
The offences surrounding children on the Internet are varied but are generally related to two main threads….
1. The making/possession/distribution of indecent images of children
This covers the sexual abuse images of children which are often sold or exchanged by offenders via the medium of the Internet and forms the core of the work undertaken by the specialist units across the 5 South Western UK forces.
2. The Sexual Offences Act 2003
Covers amongst other wide ranging issues, arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and meeting a child following sexual grooming.
This relates to adults using the Internet in order to form relationships with children with a view to later meeting them in order to sexually abuse them. Both offences are serious in nature and will be investigated by the Police teams involved with the relevant probity.
Protection from Harassment Act - Will only be acted on by Police in extreme or serious cases. Schools within the South West will have bullying policies to deal with these issues which are best caught early. Please report bullying issues over the net concerning other students to the school in the first instance.
If you are concerned over any issues that may relate to these types of offences advice can be given via your local police force via the South West Grid for Learning who have contacts within the relevant specialist departments and officers concerned. If however you need to report an incident please use the Virtual Global Task Force button (the red eye - with report abuse written underneath) within the Grid website. Your report will be dealt with by the Child Exploitation On line Protection centre in London and forwarded to the Police Force which services your area. As always any IMMEDIATE physical threat to a child should be reported via the 999 system.
Useful Links and resources
www.avonandsomerset.police.uk
For more contact details, please see our contacts section.
View Laws relating to the Internet Watch Foundation here.
Remember the GOLDen rules here