Preying on the predators
ISOBEL INTERNET WATCH FOUNDATION EMPLOYEE ON HER TEAM’S VITAL WORK
At his computer screen in his pleasant office, on a mundane industrial estate near Cambridge, Peter stared into the bedroom of a 12-year-old British girl forced into performing an explicit sexual act in front of her laptop.
The image was particularly depraved and, although obviously sickened, Peter forced himself to look. He had a job to do. In the background was a cupboard that he recognised from Argos, British plug sockets, and another sign he cannot specify, which allowed him to roughly locate the traumatised child.
He informed local police, who rescued her within two days from the clutches of the unseen voyeurs who had groomed her and forced her to perform for them, before posting the sick results of their devastating abuse online for countless other paedophiles to watch.
Peter, whose identity we are protecting, sees an image of a child being sexually abused most days of his working life. As one of 13 analysts employed by the Internet Watch Foundation, his job is to take the images down and, if possible, trace the victims.
He and his fellow analysts, former callcentre workers, drama students, mums and grandparents, took down 57,000 web pages, each containing tens of thousands of abuse images, last year.
Over half of them involved children under the age of 10, and 2% were aged
We see shocking images of babies being abused, but we stop people looking at them
two and under. Peter, 45, explains: “I view thousands of images of child abuse every day. A lot of the images I see are of children in their bedroom, but generally all you can do is take the image down and that is a small victory.
“There is no starker warning to parents who might let children take their laptop into their bedroom. They could be inviting anyone in.”
Peter reveals that police found this particular British 12-year-old had been groomed for years. And that is not rare.
This week, the National Crime Agency revealed they had overseen the arrest of nearly 200 paedophiles, thought to be grooming around 250 victims, in a oneweek blitz. Around a third of the cases involved children bring coerced to send indecent images of themselves over the internet, or live stream their abuse.
The use of live-streaming apps by paedophiles is on the rise.
This week Glen Friend, from London, became the first to be jailed for using a live-streaming app to abuse a child. Through it, he groomed a nine-year-old and enticed her to expose herself.
The NCA arrests around 400 people a month for sharing indecent images of children online. This is just one of the reasons the Daily Mirror’s NSPCC and Childline Christmas appeal is so vital.
Every hour, 20 calls and online chat requests to Childline go unanswered due to a lack of funding and staff. Just a few pounds could make a huge difference to a desperate child crying out for help.
The Internet Watch Foundation is pivotal in rescuing children from abuse.
Just two months after the 12-year-old’s case, Peter managed to pinpoint another British victim, a girl aged around 13.
“It was the same kind of thing – in her bedroom, with a laptop. We figured out where she was,” says Peter, himself a dad of two stepchildren, aged 11 and seven.
“This job does alert you to the dangers children are in if you leave them unattended on the internet. Ours don’t go in their bedrooms to use it, and we keep an eye on their search history.”
Peter and his team seek out illegal
material so obscene that only employees are allowed in the office, which has been chosen to ensure that occupants in sorrounding buildings cannot see inside. Peter has been working here for two years. Before, he was an RAF intelligence analyst. In Afghanistan and Iraq, he saw images of people being blown up. But until you see what we see here, you can’t comprehend it. It is horrific,” he admits. “If it’s a baby in a No1 Dad top, for example, that really hits home.” He says becoming a stepdad was a driving force in his decision to take the job. His colleague Isobel, 28, doesn’t have children but is equally motivated. She studied drama and then worked in a call centre, but desperately wanted to do something “worthwhile”.
“I didn’t know what to expect at all. We are talking the most shocking images – a baby being abused,” she says. “But I’m just really proud to remove these images.
“I have stopped people looking at them. And every time an image is looked at, that child becomes re-victimised.”
Yet the analysts admit that many of the harrowing images they remove go straight back up online. Isabel explains that they take whole websites of twisted abuse down, only to see them reappear.
She says: “We keep on it, we have the URL and we keep grabbing it. There have been some we have been taking down since I started here three years ago.” The foundation was formed in 1996. Every year, it removes around 60,000 web pages displaying millions of images.
It is the only organisation of its kind in the UK, and, even with just 13 analysts, it is the biggest in the world.
It partly sustains itself with EU grants, but 80% of its funding is raised by charging its 132 members, including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, for the use of its products, including tools to block indecent images. “I have [blocked] 12,000 images in a day,” explains Peter. The recruitment process is strict – only those with strong “emotional resilience” are chosen. Two interviews, including one with a psychologist, are followed by a session where images are presented to candidates in phases – beginning with adult porn, moving through animations of child abuse, then sexual posing and sexual activity, and finally sadistic abuse. There is a phased sixmonth introduction process. Peter says: “Most months you see something where you have to get up and go for a walk.
“But we are ready for it. And if there are images that keep reoccurring in our minds, our counsellor can give us techniques.” As well as a 10-minute break every hour, all analysts have a mandatory counselling session every month and see a psychologist each year.
One of their coping techniques, bizarrely, is juggling. Downstairs, the analysts’ chill-out zone is surprising – a bright space with bunting, picnic tables, table tennis, bowls of calming lavender – and yes, juggling balls.
“Having this distances us from what we do,” says Isobel. “We can’t be drawn in and here it is bright and colourful.”
It’s the boost this small team needs. They only wish the child victims they see every day were safe in a room like this, and that is why they do what they do.
For more information about the Internet Watch Foundation or to find out how to report images of child sexual exploitation visit www.iwf.org.uk.