Ceop enlists help of public in 2012 trafficking crackdown
Neil Puffett
Monday, August 8, 2011
The public could be encouraged to report possible cases of child trafficking through social networking websites such as Facebook amid concerns that next year's Olympics could trigger a surge in cases.
Various agencies are preparing for an increase in child trafficking around the time of the 2012 games in London. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (Ceop) has told CYP Now it wants to make it easier for people to report suspicious activity.
Alex Nagle, head of strategy, policy and governance at Ceop, said the intention is to create a system that will feed information to Ceop and local police on suspected activity.
Taking the lead
"There is nowhere at the moment to report child trafficking and missing children relatively easily," he said. "We want to use a 'Click Ceop'-style button to get intelligence about traffickers and abductors. We don't want people to report cases of missing children to us, because local police have primacy for this and are better able to respond to emergencies. But we do want to build up a picture of what type of abuse is happening and who is committing it."
The move coincides with Ceop taking the national lead on missing children this summer, incorporating existing resources in its child trafficking unit.
As a result, Ceop will collate information, provide training and address issues including child sexual exploitation, trafficking, abduction and young runaways.
Local police forces will continue to investigate child trafficking, but Nagle said the work they and other agencies carry out can be improved greatly.
"Training needs to be improved for police and local authorities," he said. "When a child goes missing, there is usually a good response from police, but some aspects aren't as good as they could be. Many police officers aren't aware of the issues."
He added that work to prevent children from going missing will include linking up with charities in Asia to raise awareness of the conditions faced by children trafficked to the UK, as well as educating British children to think about the things troubling them before they decide to run away.
"It's about who they can turn to, not always the police but the voluntary sector and children's services, that can help children facing risk," he said.
The remit will be supported by Home Office funding for three additional posts and a manager is in the process of being recruited.
