A full child-protection investigation, involving health boards and the Garda, must be initiated every time someone is convicted of possessing child pornography, the chief executive of the Irish Society for Protection of Children has said. Kitty Holland reports
Mr Paul Gilligan was reacting to a report from a children's charity in Britain which he said showed there was a "clear connection" between child pornography on the Internet and child sex abuse. The report, from the NCH (formerly National Children's Homes) published yesterday, shows a 1,500 per cent increase in the incidence of child pornographic crime since 1988.
The report says: "Because the Internet is facilitating larger numbers of individuals becoming involved in collecting and possessing child abuse images, it follows that it is highly likely that more children are therefore now being abused that would otherwise have been the case."
The report also voices concern about the advent of mobile phone technology with new GPRS and 3rd Generation (3G) networks, which make the Internet mobile on a large scale.
"Almost all of the issues of child safety on the Internet that exist today become much more complex when the Internet goes on the street," says the NCH.
Mr Gilligan said yesterday the ISPCC had long been concerned at the probable link between possession of and access to child pornographic images and actual child abuse. He said the NCH report indicated a "direct correlation".
"Our bottom line is that every time there is a prosecution for possession of child porn, there should be a full child protection investigation, as distinguished from a criminal investigation."
He said it should be assumed that a person convicted of possessing child pornography may have also abused children and all children they had come into contact with should be offered the opportunity to disclose abuse.
"I'm not saying every child should be brought in and interviewed but a facility should be available for parents or guardians who might be concerned, to contact their health board and have their concerns checked out."
He said the majority of children who have been abused do not come forward on their own initiative.
"So there is the risk that the abuse will not be discovered if we don't go out pro-actively."
The Labour Party spokeswoman on Children, Senator Kathleen O'Meara, called for increased resources for the Garda to detect and prosecute those dealing in Internet child pornography. "The statistics from the NCH show what we all know anecdotally to be be true: that abuse cases have risen sharply alongside the growth of the Internet. We need to find ways and means of finding and prosecuting child pornographers. If this requires new legislation then so be it," she said.
The main mobile phone providers have said there is little they can do to police the use of the Internet on their networks, though they are examining means of screening out illegal sites.