'A Crime Scene of Unspeakable Horror': Child Sex Abuse and the Internet

Perpetrators of online child sexual abuse will continue to take advantage of the latest technology to serve their purposes

A rescued children in the playroom at the Child Protection Unit, Philippine General Hospital 

Photograph: UNICEF Philippines/2016/Andy Brown

Joanna Shields
Baroness Joanna Shields is the UK minister for internet safety and security

We think of the internet as a force for good - and so it is - but today there are dark clouds on the horizon. Faster internet, anonymous access and cryptocurrency mechanisms all provide opportunities for criminals to access child sexual abuse images.

Images of child sexual abuse are uploaded and shared everyday. Some of these images are screen captures of live-streamed sexual abuse of children of all ages, even infants. Each image, each video depicts a crime scene of unspeakable horror.

Child sexual abuse is a global crime that transcends borders, and demands a global response. The WePROTECT Global Alliance to end online child sexual exploitation is that response.

The goal of WePROTECT is to eradicate child sexual exploitation online. Full stop. Its mission is to empower everyone with a responsibility to protect children online, to identify and safeguard victims, remove child sexual abuse material from the internet and track down perpetrators all over the world.

Led by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, we started WeProtect in 2014 and in just two years, 63 countries and international organisations as well as civil society organisations and major companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft have committed to its principles and global statements of action. Everyone involved understands that to make progress, it takes all of us - united behind one goal.

WePROTECT recently merged with the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online to create, for the first time, a single organisation with the influence, expertise and resources to transform how online child sexual exploitation is dealt with worldwide.

Tragically, once an image of child abuse has been posted on the internet it remains there forever unless action is taken. To reduce the availability of this vile material the Internet Watch Foundation has shared 19,000 digital identifiers of child abuse images known to law enforcement agencies with technology companies including Google and Facebook, to enable them to delete corresponding images from their platforms. Internet search providers are also removing routes to child abuse images in their search results and it is having an affect; since the start of WePROTECT, Google has seen an eight-fold reduction in search attempts.

In addition to the production and sharing of indecent images of children, what is increasingly worrying is the emergence of new threats including the live streaming of child abuse. Significant levels of poverty and faster internet connections enable this form of abuse to thrive in countries such as the Philippines, fuelled by demand from overseas - including sex offenders in the UK. Our National Crime Agency has worked with its counterparts in the Philippines to apprehend those perpetrating this abuse in both our countries, and to help safeguard child victims. This has led to significant successes, including the arrest last year of three female facilitators of live streaming and the protection of 13 children.

This government is committed to stamping out this terrible crime and in 2014 the Mr Cameron pledged £50m over five years towards this aim. Through a partnership with UNICEF the first £10m has supported programmes in 17 countries to tackle this issue. Later this year, UNICEF will launch the new Global Fund to End Violence against Children, with the remaining £40m pledged specifically to tackling online child sexual exploitation.

Child abuse, in all its forms, is an abhorrent crime. The perpetrators of online child sexual abuse will continue to take advantage of the latest technology to serve their purposes so it is imperative we remain one step ahead of them. Only by working together in the WePROTECT global alliance can we eradicate this abuse and protect children no matter where they live in the world.

UK ISP Sky to Block All Pornography By Default

Previously Sky had to tweak filters after it blocked a legitimate news website

Broadband provider Sky will block adult content by default, unless users opt out, it has revealed.

The decision was announced in a blog post and will be phased in over coming weeks.

In 2013 Prime Minister David Cameron put pressure on internet service provider [ISPs] to make online filtering mandatory, saying it was the best way to protect children.

His request caused controversy among politicians and the internet industry.

Since then most of the UK's ISPs have offered filtering software for parents concerned about what their children may be able to access online but few have offered this by default, opting instead to allow parents or other customers to turn the filters on if they want them.

Sky's Broadband Shield is designed to filter out content deemed to be unsuitable for children aged under 13. It has been offered as default to new customers for a year.

But now the firm has decided to also offer it to all its existing customers, some 5.3 million in total.

In her blog post, Lyssa McGowan, Sky's brand director, explained why it was changing its policy.

"What we're doing now is simply making sure that the automatic position of Sky Broadband Shield is the safest one for all - that's 'on', unless customers choose otherwise," she said.

Censorship
In the next few weeks Sky customers who have not chosen to either activate or disable its Broadband Shield would be emailed "giving them the opportunity to make a decision one way or the other", she said.

Once activated, users will not be able to access a filtered site without altering their settings.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group (ORG), was dismayed by the news.

"Censorship should never be turned on by default," he said.

"ORG's Blocked project (www.blocked.org.uk) has shown that filters block all kinds of websites, including some that provide useful advice to children and young people. Customers need to understand the implications of filters before deciding whether or not they want them."

How many children go on the internet to look for 'useful advice'? I'm certain that we are talking an extremely small sacrifice for an extremely good thing. As mentioned here many times, I believe the easy availability of pornography to adolescent boys is largely responsible for the 'culture of rape' that is rampant in western universities and many other institutions. We should encourage all ISPs to follow Sky's example.

Sky deserves a huge commendation for this, especially if they withstand the backlash from people like Jim Killock who should probably find a day-job.

All the UK's big four ISPs - BT, Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk - offer filtering systems to help parents prevent their children viewing inappropriate material online although few have decided to oblige users to adopt the system.

They have said that they will make sure all customers are aware of the filters.

In October, BT started using interrupting browsing sessions for customers who had not set up the parental controls asking them whether they wished to activate them but not obliging them to.

Most of the systems used by ISPs work at a network level, which means that all devices that connect to a home router will be subject to the same filtering system.

Andrew Ferguson, founder of broadband news site ThinkBroadband, said that parents should not rely solely on filters to protect their children from online nasties.

"As ever the filters don't block all unsavoury material so are not a replacement for parenting and the embarrassing questions all parents have to face," he said.

GCHQ Will Target Child Pornography on the 'Dark Net'

LONDON — UK intelligence agency GCHQ is joining a new unit, which will target the large volumes of child abuse images available on the "dark net."

GCHQ = Government Communications Headquarters

The unit, made up of GCHQ and the National Crime Agency, will focus on the increasing number of people who are turning to the "dark net" — a network of sites only accessible through the use of anonymising browsers — to find this type of content.

The announcement was made at the #WeProtect Children Global Summit, which took place in London Thursday, where representatives of 50 countries came together to look at measures to tackle child abuse online.

"We've seen an increasing and alarming phenomenon of paedophiles contacting children online over the internet or on their mobile phone," UK Prime Minister David Cameron told the conference.

"There can be no grey areas here — If you ask a child to take their clothes off and send a picture, you are as guilty as if you did that in person."

Cameron said a new law is being introduced that will make it illegal for adults to send these types of messages to children.

"There is nowhere to hide," he said. "Child exploitation online is a real crime for which there is real punishment."

Thousands of people in Britain are using the "dark net" to find images of child sex abuse. A BBC investigation earlier this year found that one site trading images got 500 page views per second.

Meanwhile, a number of companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, unveiled measures for blocking and removing child abuse material from the web. They say this will be done by using the "digital fingerprints" of known child sex-abuse images, identified by the Internet Watch Foundation.

However, some have said the measures revealed Thursday are already in place and Cameron's announcement merely rehashes them.

The former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, Jim Gamble, told Channel 4 News the Prime Minister was electioneering.

"When I was with CEOP, we had a seconded member of GCHQ. We looked at the technology offenders were using. If they are saying that, for the past three and-a-half years, that has not been happening, then they need to say why," Gamble told Channel 4 News.

Since the start of this year, the IWF has already processed 70,541 reports, of which 27,850 URLs were determined to contain images of child sex abuse, it said in a statement released Thursday. This is an increase of 109% from 2013.

The foundation said in 1996, 18% of the world’s known child sex-abuse imagery was hosted in the UK, but in 2014, that has been reduced to less than 0.3%.

Changes to Google’s search engine has led to a five-fold reduction in searches for images of child sexual abuse, a major London conference has been told.

Although the fall in search numbers is welcomed, the majority of searches for child abuse occur on “the Dark Web”, which hosts thousands of websites that use anonymity tools to hide their address.

3 Sources Indicate Madeleine's Body was Disposed of at Nearby Reservoir

An employee of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz found note in the doorway
of apartment 5A, where Madeleine vanished, on the first anniversary
of her disappearance

A letter handed in to Portuguese police claimed to know the final resting place of Madeleine McCann, it has emerged.

An employee of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz found the letter in the doorway of apartment 5A, where Madeleine vanished, on the first anniversary of her disappearance.

The handyman, who we are not naming but was formerly employed by the holiday resort, immediately handed in the note to the police in May 2008.

He described the letter as being headed: “Madeleine Beth McCann”, with a description below of how she had been dumped in the Barragem da Bravura reservoir, nine miles from the holiday resort.

He said: “It was raining that night so it was soaking wet when I found it. It clearly said Madeleine’s name at the top. It was written in Portuguese.

“Beneath it was a location for what it claimed was her final resting place.

“I spoke to the other staff about it and they said to hand it in to the Portuguese police. I gave it to them, but I have no idea what they did about it.

“It would be the perfect place to hide a body.”

"Perfect place to hide a body": Words of handyman who handed note in to police 

It is believed that although the surrounding woodland was initially looked at by detectives on the case, there has never been an underwater search of the reservoir.

Tonight a spokesperson for Kate and Gerry McCann said they would “welcome” any new searches of the area.

Clarence Mitchell said: “Kate and Gerry will be informed of what this witness is telling the Daily Mirror.

"We would welcome any new searches. But they cannot comment on any specific detail as that is entirely a matter for Operation Grange and the Portuguese authorities.”

Mirror reporter David Collins by the Lake in Praia da Luz

The man-made lake is close to the A22 motorway which runs from Praia da Luz towards the Spanish border.

In October 2007, five months after Madeleine disappeared, officers from the Civil Guard helped search the large area of woodland, which has a lake in the middle supplying water to surrounding towns and villages.

The search was re-ordered by lead investigator Paulo Rebelo, who took over the stalled investigation, after concerns the area had not been searched properly when Madeleine went missing.

Detectives believed it was a possibility the youngster’s body may have been weighed down with rocks and disposed of in the huge expanse of water.

However reports at the time say police, along with specially trained sniffer dogs, spent just two hours at the site and are not thought to have deployed underwater search teams.

One eyewitness, who was there at the time of the search, said: “I never saw any divers physically trawl through that lake. The water is dark and murky and would need to be searched thoroughly.

”It’s so close to Praia da Luz, and such an obvious place to hide a body, that I’m amazed following an actual tip off this hasn’t been done.”

Map of the area where the lake is

The Portuguese investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance has been widely criticised and is known to have made several serious mistakes, including the failure to close off the apartment which led to the contamination of the crime scene after up to 20 people were allowed inside.

It has previously been reported how a Dutch newspaper was sent an anonymous letter and a map of the area near the same reservoir bearing a cross and the words: “Where Madeleine is buried.”

The desolate Barragem da Bravura lake, or the “Reservoir of the Wilderness”, occupies an area two-and-a-half miles wide and a perimeter of 25 miles. Only a handful of isolated dwellings dot the beauty spot.

Many of the Ocean Club staff believe the four-year-old could have been taken there after she vanished from the McCanns’ holiday apartment.

In February 2008, a team of divers hired by Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia searched the Barragem do Arada reservoir, which is 35 miles east of Praia da Luz.

The human rights lawyer claimed that underworld criminals told him Madeleine was dumped in a nearby lake that was “deserted with lots of trees and a beach area” - however the search came to nothing.

Kate, 46, and Gerry, 45, of Rothley, Leics, were at a tapas bar about 80 yards from their apartment when Madeleine vanished.

Gerry checked on her and her brother and sister at 9.15pm. At 10pm Kate found she had gone.

Kate and Gerry McCann

Police believe seven new possible suspects, five men and two women, may have information.

It has been reported they also plan to re-interview expat Robert Murat, 41, who was cleared by the 2007 inquiry.

A friend of the McCann’s from Rothley, Leics, said they were desperate to find out what had happened to Madeleine and were confident Scotland Yard would “do everything in their power” to unravel the mystery.

The friend said: “They hope police search any potentially significant new place but until there is evidence to suggest otherwise Kate and Gerry remain hopeful that Madeleine could still be alive.

”If an anonymous letter has come to light which suggests their daughter’s body could be in a lake in a barren area not far from Praia da Luz then they know police will be thinking ‘Was this area searched before and do we need to look at it again?’

”They would hope it has been acted on before but if there is new information it will surely be in police hands.”

Former GP Kate and heart doctor Gerry, both 46, rarely comment on the huge multi-million police inquiry ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron.

But in a joint statement released this summer when cops were digging up part of the resort from were three-year-old Maddie was snatched in May 2007, they said: “We are very pleased that significant activity has taken place in Praia da Luz over the last eight days with police officers and support teams from the UK working closely with the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria and the Guarda Nacional Republicana.

Summer search turned up nothing

”We are further encouraged that, despite intensive searches, no trace of Madeleine has been found and this reinforces our belief that she could still be alive.”

Kate and Gerry’s Portuguese lawyer Isabel Duarte told the Mirror: “They want to know exactly what has happened to their child.”

A Scotland Yard spokesperson refused to comment. 

Conservative MP to Step Down over Sexting Scandals

London: A member of parliament for British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party said on Sunday he would step down because his political career was in ruins after media revelations about his personal life.

In a setback for Cameron, whose party is trailing the opposition Labour party in most opinion polls ahead of a national election in May, Brooks Newmark said he had written to the prime minister to announce he would be standing down.

Sophie Wittams the young
mum Newmark sexted

“The continued media intrusion into past episodes in my personal life is placing an intolerable burden on my family,” the 56-year-old married father of five wrote in the letter. Of course, it's the media's fault. Had nothing to do with being an adulterous pervert.

Newmark, who was born in the United States, announced his decision two weeks after he resigned from a junior ministerial post over a story in a Sunday newspaper saying he had sent sexually explicit pictures of himself to an undercover male reporter posing as a woman.

His announcement that he was quitting parliament came as the Sun on Sunday newspaper said Newmark had sent a second set of nude pictures of himself, to a “young mum”.

In the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Newmark wrote that he would stand down at the next election “in response to what seems to be a new text-and-tell story.” “Late at night, I began a series of flirtations in response to approaches from women on social media,” he wrote. “Deep inside, I knew I was playing with fire. Now it has consumed me and my family.” He said he was starting residential psychiatric treatment to try to “salvage my life and my family.” 

We wish him success at his counselling and at restoring relationships within his family. We also wish he had sought counselling long before now.

The circumstances of Newmark’s departure provide more bad publicity for the Conservatives at a time when they are trying to address a growing threat from the anti-EU UK Independence Party.

People, even supposedly smart people, just don't get it. If you have nude photos of yourself on your computer or phone, the second you put them on the internet, or text them to someone, you have no control over what happens to them. And if you are a well-known person, like a politician, a movie star, rock star, sports star, etc., they 'will be made public'.

Portuguese Court Chaos May Seriously Slow the Madeleine McCann Investigation

SCOTLAND Yard’s probe into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is being held up because of chaos in the Portuguese legal ­system, the Sunday Express has learned.

Madeleine McCann at three years of age - 2007

Frustrated detectives want to quickly press ahead with their investigations and have sent a fifth letter of request detailing their requirements to legal chiefs in Portugal.

The process is being bogged down because of major changes in the way justice is delivered.

In an attempt to improve the ­service (that's what governments always say when they are slashing jobs), 20 courts have closed creating a huge backlog of cases and a nightmare for administrators.

Trials are being held up as vast amounts of documents are moved all over the country in a bid to streamline the service (that's the other thing they say). So government lawyers are giving priority to running trials and urgent cases.

A legal official in Portugal said: “The system is a mess, which is causing a huge political row between the right-of-centre government and the socialist opposition.

“This all means that Maddie is taking a low priority because all the effort is going on keeping the courts running. There is also a new prosecutor in Portimao on the Algarve who is having to be fully briefed on scores of cases, including Madeleine’s, and that all takes time.

“There are delays but people are working extra hours to try to get everything moving again.”

It is understood that the Yard detectives have requested to do further work on the background of three arguidos, or suspects, and several other people they believe could have important information.

Yard detectives searching in Portugal
earlier this summer, & finding nothing

Yard officers can sit in on interviews but they have to be conducted by Portuguese ­detectives.

They are now anxiously awaiting the formal legal response to their request before they can plan their next moves.

The hold-up is the latest problem to affect the work to find the youngster who, then aged three, vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in May 2007.

Last week details emerged about a Home Office report which showed British police forces helping with the search for Madeleine hampered the Portuguese investigation.

So many UK agencies were keen to be seen to be helping, it created a “sense of chaos and competition”.

That damaged relations with Portuguese police and had a long-term ­negative effect, according to the unpublished findings of Jim Gamble, former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

Commissioned by former home secretary Alan Johnson in 2009, the report was ­delivered the following year and led to the Met Police reopening the ­investigation into the disappearance.

The Home Office, which would not release the report under Freedom of Information laws, declined to ­comment.

Kate and Gerry were dining with friends across the pool from their suite
when Madeleine was taken

'Prowler seen stalking holiday apartments when Madeleine McCann vanished' book claims


A MYSTERY prowler was stalking the same holiday apartments where Madeleine McCann was abducted in the weeks running up to her disappearance, a new book claims.

Author Anthony Summers alleges that a bogus charity collector was in the area just hours before the youngster disappeared in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007.

But the intruder fled when he was caught in a villa close to the apartment from where Madeleine, who was nearly four, vanished some seven years ago.

Mr Summers told how one British mother answered her door to the stranger asking for donations to an orphanage. 

The author said: “She soon realised he wasn’t really looking at her, but was staring intently at her young daughter of three or four who was standing at her side, holding on to her skirt.

“She later saw that man watching her place during the afternoon. The next day she went upstairs to fetch something for a moment and as she started to come downstairs she saw what she thinks was the same man in the room where her child was and as soon as she started to come into the room he scampered.” 

Mr Summers said the unnamed woman was convinced the man intended to take her daughter and has now been interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.
With co-author Robbyn Swan, Mr Summers recounts the incident in his new book Looking For Madeleine, which is published next week.

The authors spent two years studying Portuguese police files and British documents for what they claim is the first objective book on the Madeleine case.

However, they did not interview Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann.

But the authors claim that the McCanns’ holiday apartment, number 5a at the Ocean Club complex, was being watched in the days leading up to Madeleine’s disappearance.

Ms Swan told Sky News: “Two separate witnesses apparently saw a man, whom both described as very ugly or with a spotty or pimply face, staring fixedly at apartment 5a. They both described him being in the same position in the street.

Could this be the 'ugly man'?

“That’s combined with the fact that on the very day Madeleine disappeared, a lady visiting the apartment upstairs saw from her balcony a man behaving very oddly in the lane between the apartments and the pool.

“The man was going out of an adjacent gate, closing the gate repeatedly to see if it was creaky. He seemed to be looking around and generally acting very peculiarly before leaving.”
Scotland Yard detectives launched Operation Grange, an investigative review into Madeleine’s disappearance, in May 2011 after parents Gerry, 45, and Kate, 46, of Rothley, Leicester, appealed directly to Prime Minister David Cameron for help. A full blown investigation was then launched after this.

Around 40 detectives and civilian staff are currently dedicated to the inquiry which has so far cost an estimated £6 million.

Yard chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe recently said: “The investigation is still ongoing and we will not be reducing the team.”

It is understood that a mystery sexual predator and three burglary suspects are the focus of the current Scotland Yard investigation. 

But the new book also reveals how another intruder got into the bed of a young girl in the nearby resort of Carvoeiro three years earlier.

Co-author Ms Swan said the man fled after the girl and her sister woke up and asked if he was their daddy or uncle.

“What they noticed about this man was that he was wearing what seemed to be a surgical mask and he had wound laundry around his feet, seemingly to keep from making prints or leaving marks,” Ms Swan said.

“He disappeared without interfering with the two girls.” Thank God!

Kate and Gerry McCann and Madeleine

Kate and Gerry McCann remain convinced their daughter is alive and have repeatedly said they have full confidence in investigation being carried out by the detectives searching for her.

It must drive them near crazy sometimes to think about the possibilities of what might have happened to her. If she is still alive, hopefully, she was sold into adoption to a decent family. Otherwise, she could be trapped into sexual slavery - hooked on heroin, or even living as a prisoner in a cave.

Wherever she is, she needs our prayers. If she's not alive, then we should pray for closure.

Pressure Continues to Add Kincora Boys' Home to Child Sex Abuse Inquiry

First Minister Peter Robinson has said that child sex abuse at Kincora boys' home is a "national scandal" that needs to be fully investigated. The Kincora Boys' Home was located in east Belfast, Northern Ireland.

He said he has written to the prime minister to urge that the east Belfast home is included in the ongoing Westminister child sex abuse inquiry.

First Minister of Northern Ireland and Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party
Peter Robinson

Robinson adds a powerful voice to the many who have been calling for the inclusion of Kincora to the Westminster inquiry.

Earlier, a former Army intelligence officer said he was ordered to stop investigations into the home in 1975.

In 1981, three senior care staff at the home were jailed for abusing 11 boys.

Brian Gemmell said he presented a report on claims of abuse at the home to a senior MI5 officer but was told to stop his investigation.

It has been claimed that people of the "highest profile" were connected to abuse at the home.

Private Eye magazine alleges that high-ranking members of the Whitehall Civil Service and senior officers of the British military were involved in the sexual abuse of boys in Kincora. Whitehall is the administrative centre of the Government of the United Kingdom.

Earlier this month, another former Army officer, Colin Wallace, said any new investigation of Kincora must have access to information from intelligence agencies. Unless, of course, those files all happen to disappear.

Mr Wallace said he received intelligence in 1973 to say that boys were being abused, but claims some of his superiors refused to pass on the information.

Mr Robinson said that the allegations of a cover-up "need to be investigated".

"There are questions that have to be answered," he said.

"Because at the bottom of all this, and I've met some of the individuals concerned, we're talking about young boys who were put into the care of the state and we are now being told that there were agencies of the state who were aware of it and did nothing.

"That is the most serious allegation that can be made, particularly when you see just how much it has ruined the lives of so many people."

Kincoras Boys Home 1982

"I hope to see him over the weekend at some events. Again, I will prompt him on the issue because I think it is one that is important, that the prime minister of our country gives a very clear steer that something has to be done."

Mr Robinson said any investigation would require full access to information from intelligence agencies.

"I think there has to be complete freedom on the part of those who want to give evidence to be able to do so.

"I don't think anybody is asking them to divulge national secrets, but this is a national scandal that needs to be dealt with and I trust that whatever steps are taken to ensure that the truth comes out are taken."

"The extent to which there is an avoidance of that kind of thorough investigation adds at least circumstantially to the case that there is something to hide," he said.

"If there is nothing to hide, why would anybody fear opening the books?"

"Let's see exactly what has happened, whether the person at the heart of the Kincora scandal was indeed on the payroll of MI5, whether their handlers were aware of what was going on; why they chose, if that is the case, not to do anything about it and leave vulnerable boys in that situation.

"In some cases it goes beyond rumours," he said. "Again, you get down to what might be regarded as circumstantial evidence, but people did take their lives after being questioned by police on these issues.

"I've heard the rumours, I've read some of the documentation in relation to it and there is certainly a prima facie case that would merit an investigation."

Breathtaking Horror as 4 Million Girls and Women Ordered to Undergo FGM

Just as UK Prime Minister David Cameron called for an end to female circumcision in this generation comes this nightmare of a story from Isis.

Militant group Islamic State has ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq's northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The "fatwa" issued by the Sunni Muslim fighters would potentially affect 4 million women and girls, UN resident and humanitarian co-ordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock told reporters in Geneva by videolink from Arbil.

"This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed," she said.

"This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists," she added.

No one was immediately available for comment from Islamic State which has led an offensive through northern and western Iraq.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that we are living in the 21st century

ISPs Doing a Poor Job of Combating the Roots of the Culture of Rape

The culture of rape is a growing phenomena in the western world. It has been around in parts of the east at least for centuries, but in western societies it is fairly new. It wasn't that long ago that a girl was fairly safe walking around a university campus by herself. Not so much anymore.

But probably most campus rapes occur when the girl gets blotto drunk or is drugged, which was not so common in the 1950s for instance. So, misuse of drugs and alcohol certainly are a contributing factor in the evolution of the culture of rape in western society.

The main influence promoting this dreadful cultural curve is, I believe, the easy availability of pornography to adolescent boys. The adolescent mind 're-wires' itself and a person's views and attitudes change dramatically. That which influences the mind in the throes of adolescence can have a powerful affect on who, or what, a child becomes.

Pornography demeans women to the point of becoming nothing more than a vehicle for the fulfillment of a boy's lusts or fantasies. That concept can become locked in the psyche of a boy until something akin to psychological dynamite blows it up. That may be facing a long jail sentence for rape, or otherwise having your life ruined because of a poor decision to satisfy your lust at the expense of a girl who is more or less helpless to defend herself.

It has only been in the past 20 years or so that the internet has made pornography so readily available to anyone who wants it, which include a lot of curious, young, adolescent boys. So it has been in the last 15 years or so that the culture of rape has really begun to fester.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is probably the world's leading political advocate for ending sexual violence. Coming out a year ago yesterday, Cameron exerted considerable influence on ISPs and search engines to begin to clean up the internet. One of the planks in his platform is the provision of filters for pornography, drugs, etc., for children. Some ISPs are more enthusiastic about this program than others.

TalkTalk's HomeSafe option has been in place since May 2011, and fully 36% of their subscribers us it. That's not great, but it's way better than the others. BT and Sky launched their filter services late last year. Only 5% of BT's new subscribers and 8% of Sky's new subscribers use the filters.

Virgin is the biggest disgrace among the four. They did not have their filter program in place until February of this year, and only 4% of new subscribers have opted for it. To make matters worse, only 35% of Virgin's new subscribers were even offered the service. Virgin says it is addressing the problem, but it is a lack-lustre start and perhaps an indication of the lack of enthusiasm by the company to comply with the program.

Getting pornography away from children is, in my opinion, absolutely essential for a healthy attitude by boys toward girls and toward sex. I know we can never completely keep it away from boys, but making it much harder to access will mean much less frequent exposure, which, in turn, will result in less perversion of the adolescent mind, and eventually, a better society.

FGM Summit: New Measures Announced by David Cameron Very Good News

New measures aimed at ending female genital mutilation (FGM) within a generation will be announced at a global summit in London.

Prime Minister David Cameron will say parents face prosecution if their daughters are cut, and he will also unveil a £1.4m prevention programme.

It is estimated that up to 170,000 women and girls living in England and Wales could have undergone FGM.

The Girl Summit will also look at ways to end forced marriage.

Hosted by the UK government and children's charity Unicef, the summit will be attended by international politicians, campaigners including the Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, and women who have undergone FGM.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Mr Cameron said: "All girls have the right to live free from violence and coercion, without being forced into marriage or the lifelong physical and psychological effects of female genital mutilation.

"Abhorrent practices like these, no matter how deeply rooted in societies, violate the rights of girls and women across the world, including here in the UK."

The FGM prevention programme will see the NHS working with girls affected by the practice.

Female genital mutilation

Includes "the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons"

Practised in 29 countries in Africa and some countries in Asia and the Middle East

An estimated three million girls and women worldwide are at risk each year

About 125 million victims estimated to be living with the consequences

It is commonly carried out on young girls, often between infancy and the age of 15

Often motivated by beliefs about what is considered proper sexual behaviour, to prepare a girl or woman for adulthood and marriage and to ensure "pure femininity"

Dangers include severe bleeding, problems urinating, infections, infertility and increased risk of newborn deaths in childbirth

In December 2012, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for all member states to ban the practise
Source: World Health Organization

It has been illegal in Britain since 1985, but the first prosecutions - which are currently ongoing - were not until this year.

Other FGM measures include:

Training for teachers, doctors and social workers to identify and help girls at risk
Lifelong anonymity for victims
New guidance for police on handling FGM cases

Malala Yousafzai

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai is expected at the summit.

An "international charter" calling for the eradication of FGM and forced marriage within a generation will also be unveiled, along with programmes to identify child and forced marriage in 12 developing countries.

Home Secretary Theresa May, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Justine Greening, the international development secretary, will also appear at the summit.

Analysis
Jane Dreaper, BBC health correspondent

Female genital mutilation has become a prominent issue in the UK in the past couple of years.

No one knows for sure how many women and children here are affected.

But ministers have underlined that it is a form of child abuse - and the UK should do all it can to prevent it.

The prime minister is keen to demonstrate leadership on global issues beyond his increased spending on foreign aid, which has proved controversial at times.

Today's summit aims to eradicate FGM and child or forced marriage within a generation.

Is this doable? Summits like these sometimes fail to achieve their stated aims - but even when targets are not reached, there is still a sense of momentum and progress.

And that could make a significant difference to the lives of thousands of girls worldwide.

Mrs May said: "FGM and forced marriage are incredibly harmful practices, and it is terrible to think about the number of women and girls in the UK who have been subjected to these crimes."

MPs recently said the UK's failure to tackle FGM was a "national scandal", and that failures by ministers, police and other agencies had led to the "preventable mutilation of thousands of girls".

The Commons Home Affairs Committee estimated that 170,000 women and girls were living with FGM in the UK.

Unicef said its research showed that more than 130 million girls and women had experienced some form of FGM in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where it is most common.

It also said 250 million women and girls alive today were married before the age of 15.

Unicef executive director Anthony Lake said: "The numbers tell us we must accelerate our efforts."

Head of Child Sex Scandal Inquiry Forced Out Before the Inquiry even Begins

Retired judge Baroness Butler-Sloss has stepped down as head of a probe into child sex abuse saying she was "not the right person" for the job.

Lady Butler-Sloss has been under pressure to quit from MPs and victims concerned about her family links.

Baroness Butler-Sloss

Her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general in the 1980s.

Home Secretary Theresa May said she did not regret appointing the peer, adding that she would "not hang around" in naming her successor.

Lady Butler-Sloss said she "did not sufficiently consider" whether her family links would cause difficulties in the inquiry.

Downing Street said it would "take a few days" to appoint a new chairman and appeared to indicate that whoever was chosen would not be so closely linked to the establishment.

Mrs May told MPs that she believed Lady Butler-Sloss was the "right person for the job" despite what she suggested was a lot of "rumour and innuendo" about her appointment.

"I do not regret the decision I made. I continue to believe that Elizabeth Butler-Sloss would have done an excellent job as chair of this inquiry," she told the Home Affairs select committee.

Asked about her successor, Mrs May said she still favoured appointing a single individual to head the over-arching inquiry rather than a panel of experts urged by Labour and some abuse victims.

She said she hoped to name a new candidate "within a reasonable amount of time" but said whoever was approached would need to "think carefully" about the nature of the role.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee, which is also investigating historical child sex abuse, said the handling of the issue had been "somewhat shambolic" and raised issues about Mrs May's judgement. Since she still thinks Butler-Sloss is the 'right person for the job' when even Butler-Sloss no longer thinks she is, then I question her judgement too. She just doesn't seem to get the needs of the victims at all.

Home Secretary Theresa May

In a statement, Lady Butler-Sloss said she had been "honoured" to be asked to chair the inquiry and had hoped to "make a useful contribution".

But, she added: "It has become apparent over the last few days, however, that there is a widespread perception, particularly among victim and survivor groups, that I am not the right person to chair the inquiry.

"It has also become clear to me that I did not sufficiently consider whether my background and the fact my brother had been attorney general would cause difficulties.

"This is a victim-orientated inquiry and those who wish to be heard must have confidence that the members of the panel will pay proper regard to their concerns and give appropriate advice to government.

"Having listened to the concerns of victim and survivor groups and the criticisms of MPs and the media, I have come to the conclusion that I should not chair this inquiry and have so informed the Home Secretary."

The inquiry was set up to examine how state institutions handled their duty of care to protect children from paedophiles.

Most public bodies at least claim they appoint people because of what they know, not who they know. But it was Lady Butler-Sloss's family and political connections - not her experience and knowledge - which led to her resignation.

There will be no rush to appoint her successor - it could take several days. That's because while her resignation was unfortunate, a second controversial appointment might look like carelessness at the top of government.

Already there are calls for a figure less linked to the establishment to be appointed - but if a legal background, along with the security clearance to read confidential government papers is required, then that could be easier said than done.

David Cameron's spokesman said Lady Butler-Sloss's decision to quit was "entirely" her own.

"The reasons for her appointment still absolutely stand in terms of her professional expertise and her integrity, which I don't think has been questioned from any quarter whatsoever, and rightly so," he said.

Appearing before the Commons home affairs select committee, Mrs May was asked whether she was aware before appointing Lady Butler-Sloss of claims that her late brother had tried to persuade former Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens against naming an alleged paedophile on the floor of the House of Commons.

Mrs May, implied the answer to that question was no, saying that these were issues which had "surfaced in the last few days as far as I am concerned".

She added: "There was absolutely no doubt that Elizabeth Butler-Sloss was Michael Havers' sister. That was well known. A number of issues about Michael Havers had been raised publicly in the past."

Sir Michael Havers, former Attorney General and brother to Lady Butler-Sloss

She insisted she had conducted "due diligence" on Lady Butler-Sloss before appointing her, including holding a "number of discussions" with relevant people, but said the focus was on her ability to perform the role.

"My judgement was about her integrity to do this job. That is why I appointed her."

For Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said it was the right decision since concerns about "victim confidence or conflict of interest" had not been addressed.

"It is very unfortunate that the last minute nature of the Home Secretary's response means that proper consideration was not given to the perception of conflict of interest and Lady Butler-Sloss was placed in an unfair position by the Home Office," she said.

Author Alex Wheatle, who was abused at a children's home in the late 1960s, said victims must be "100% sure they will be treated fairly".

"For any people coming forward they must have the utmost confidence in whoever chairs that inquiry," he said.

Peter Saunders, from the National Association for Abused People in Childhood, said the government had "missed a trick" in not seeking the views of victims before the appointment.

"We need somebody who is trusted," he said. "This is not a slight on Lady Butler-Sloss... but there were so many things stacked against her in having the trust of survivors."

Cameron Orders a Probe into VIP Child Sex Abuse - but Only Seven Detectives are Investigating Explosive Claims

DAVID Cameron last night ordered a fresh investigation to discover what happened to the missing dossier detailing explosive claims of a Westminster VIP paedophile ring.

Ministers including Nick Clegg and Theresa May have been rejecting calls for a full-scale public inquiry into historical child abuse, insisting a police investigation will be sufficient to get to the bottom of the claims.

Yesterday, however, the Prime Minister ordered the Home Office’s most senior official to launch an investigation amid claims that the department’s response to the affair so far had been ‘outrageous’.

Prime Minister David Cameron

Past Home Secretary Lord Liam Brittan

 Probe: David Cameron, left, has ordered the most senior Home Office official to investigate a missing dossier handed to Lord Brittan, the former home secretary, by Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens about an alleged paedophile ring in Westminster in the 1980s.

Mr Cameron said he understood mounting concerns about what happened to the dossier handed over to then Home Secretary Leon Brittan by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983.

He said: ‘That’s why I’ve asked the permanent secretary at the Home Office [Mark Sedwill] to do everything he can to find answers to all of these questions and to make sure we can reassure people about these events.’

He added: ‘If anyone has information about criminal wrong-doing they should, of course, give it to the police.’ But the Daily Mail can reveal that only seven detectives have been deployed by Scotland Yard chiefs to investigate the allegations.

The tiny squad has been given the huge task of investigating historical allegations of child abuse relating to MPs, a guest house where rent boys entertained Establishment figures, a children’s home and the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange.

The police inquiry, launched in November 2012, is also responsible for investigating the activities of the disgraced Liberal MP Cyril Smith.

Sources close to the investigation, which has the umbrella name Operation Fairbank, say it has been poorly resourced since day one and claim that Metropolitan Police bosses have shown little interest in it.

Shadow home secretary Yvett Cooper said
the 2013 Home Office review was 'not good
enough' and led to a 'lack of proper answers'

By contrast, nearly 200 detectives have been deployed on the investigation into phone hacking and bribery allegations involving journalists, while about 30 officers have been attached to Operation Yewtree, the Jimmy Savile scandal inquiry into sex crimes committed by celebrities.

The revelation that Scotland Yard boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and his senior officers put just seven officers on Operation Fairbank prompted widespread criticism and claims of a continuing cover-up.

Simon Danczuk, one of the original group of seven cross-party MPs who wrote to the Home Secretary urging her to launch a ‘Hillsborough-style’ inquiry into the abuse scandal, said: ‘Theresa May will know that barely a handful of police officers are assigned to these investigations, so when they claim this is a matter best left to the police they are essentially consigning it to the dustbin of history.’

He added: ‘They know full well that proper resources are needed to get to the bottom of years of cover up to protect establishment paedophiles, and without this there is no chance of the truth being uncovered.

 The public will now rightly want to know why our political leaders are not doing all they can to expose establishment paedophiles and bring them to justice.’

Labour MP Mr Danczuk, who helped expose the full extent of Cyril Smith’s vile paedophile attacks in a book serialised by the Mail, said more people have contacted his office in recent days with claims of a child sex ring at Westminster and naming one particular MP from the 1980s.

Responding to Mr Cameron’s announcement of a fresh investigation, he said: ‘The Prime Minister knows that there is a growing sense of public anger about allegations of historical abuse involving senior politicians and his statement today represents little more than a damage limitation exercise.

‘It doesn’t go far enough. The public has lost confidence in these kind of official reviews, which usually result in a whitewash. The only way to get to the bottom of this is a thorough public inquiry.’

Demands for a full-scale investigation into an alleged cover-up of a Westminster paedophile ring increased this week leaving Leon Brittan, now Lord Brittan,  facing questions over his handling of the explosive dossier handed to him by Mr Dickens.

Lord Brittan has confirmed he received a ‘substantial bundle of papers’ – which detailed allegations of a paedophile network within Parliament and Whitehall – and passed them to his officials for investigation.

But amid claims of an Establishment cover-up, the Home Office admits the dossier was either lost or destroyed. Which would you bet on?

An internal review last year revealed that the Tory peer had written to Mr Dickens in 1984 saying the dossier had been assessed by prosecutors as worth pursuing and handed to police.

Yet the Mail has learned that the Met can find no record that the Dickens dossier was investigated by the force in the 1980s.

Speculation was mounting that Sir Bernard and Commander Graham McNulty, who is overseeing the Westminster paedophile ring investigation, could be hauled before MPs to explain the alleged under-resourcing of the inquiry.

Google Stepping Up Campaign Against Pornography

One of Google's less popular but definitely encouraging corporate policies has been their hard stance against pornography. 

They've thrown an awful lot of their considerable weight against online pornography, and just put into practice two very big moves that will severely limit access to sexually explicit material. 

First of all, Google will no longer accept advertisements through Google AdWords that promote graphic depictions of sexuality. That means ads that contain or lead to pornography will see a severe drop in clicks that come from Google. 

The second move was actually launched in March, prohibiting apps sold through Google's app store that contain or promote explicit content. Essentially, if the app is used as either a provider or gateway to pornography, it can no longer be sold through Google.

Google sent an email out alerting their advertisers—particularly pornography and other adult themed websites—that they will be implementing their new advertising policy which eliminates pornographic and sexually explicit ads. In addition, it seems Google will also no longer link to sites that contain such materials, no matter how benign their advertising.

The letter from Google:

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

We're writing to remind you about a change to Google's advertising policies we announced in our Policy Change Log that may affect your AdWords account: 

Beginning in the coming weeks, we'll no longer accept ads that promote graphic depictions of sexual acts including, but not limited to, hardcore pornography; graphic sexual acts including sex acts such as masturbation; genital, anal, and oral sexual activity.

When we make this change, Google will disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being in violation of our revised policy. Our system identified your account as potentially affected by this policy change. We ask that you make any necessary changes to your ads and sites to comply so that your campaigns can continue to run.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team

Last year, under pressure from British Prime Minister David Cameron, Google and Bing agreed to eliminate 100,000 search terms that might lead to child pornography. 

This move is very encouraging because it includes all types of pornography. The easy accessibility to pornography on the internet by adolescents is, I believe, at least partly responsible for the rapidly flourishing 'rape culture' in western society.

These are all good moves that may help keep children from accessing porn so easily, however, the vast majority of  porn and child porn exist on the 'dark net' - unaffected by Google or Bing.

500 Page Views per Second - One Site - Child Porn - Dark Net

Tens of thousands of paedophiles are using the so-called dark net to trade images of sexual abuse, an investigation by BBC News indicates.

One site receives as many as 500 page views per second, its founder says.

Figures from another site suggest Brits are heavily involved in producing and distributing illegal obscene images.

Britain's National Crime Agency warned in its 2014 threat assessment that abusers were turning to anonymous sites and encryption technology.

The dark net is the term used to refer to parts of the internet that are hidden and can be hard to access without special software.

One of the most popular products used to access such areas is called the TorBrowser.

Paedophiles use chat rooms on the dark net to share illegal images and to
encourage each other to make more and more vile images/videos

It allows people to use Tor, an "onion-routing" system which makes a PC's net address untraceable by bouncing the encrypted data it sends through several randomly selected computer servers on a volunteer network - each of which removes a level of encryption - before it reaches its destination.

There are also many hidden sites on the network ending in the .onion suffix, which cannot be found using Google or other regular search engines.

Tor was first created by the US military but is now also used by pro-democracy campaigners, whistleblowers and journalists operating under repressive regimes. It was used by activists during the Arab Spring to avoid detection.

But criminals are also taking advantage of its anonymity.

BBC News contacted a man who, until recently, ran a site on the dark net for paedophiles to swap images of child sexual abuse.

He used untraceable email and encrypted messages. There's no way of confirming his identity but he has provided proof that he was owner of the site, which stopped operating in May.

He admitted he was an active paedophile.

"We had over 40,000 user accounts on the site. We used to get sometimes 500 page views per second. My own collection is 12 gigabytes," he wrote.

He claimed that, until he closed the site, the number of users was still growing.

Undercover officers sometimes pose as
 paedophiles to tempt child abusers
to reveal their identity

"There certainly are more paedophiles coming to the dark net. I don't know if these new users are brand new paedophiles discovering child porn for the first time or if these are people who used to swap on the 'clear net' but found Tor which is much safer."

As for his personal safety, he was confident police couldn't find him.

"I don't want to go into details about my security set-up but it is designed with many layers to keep me safe from even the most capable adversaries in the world," he said.

The threat posed by these kinds of sites has been recognised by governments around the world.

In November, the British prime minister, David Cameron, held a summit at Downing Street on online safety.

He said he expected the spy agencies and GCHQ to lend their skills to the police.

"That expertise is going to be brought to bear, to go after these revolting people sharing these images on the dark net," he said.

But IT experts are divided as to whether it's possible to create a workable "backdoor" into Tor, which would allow users to be identified.

Paedophiles encrypt the data they
send to help protect their identities

Several countries' police forces are working together, under the banner of The Virtual Global Taskforce, to tackle online child exploitation worldwide.

The body's chairman, Ian Quinn, said Tor was an emerging threat.

"It's certainly a challenge, I'm hesitant to describe law enforcement techniques but it's something we're definitely keeping an eye on."

When asked if paedophiles were indeed moving from the conventional internet to the dark net, he replied: "I think you have to suppose that's the case, based on the investigations that we do."

But some security specialists believe there are innovative ways to unmask the users of paedophile sites.

Greg Virgin has investigated the scale
of content being traded
on hidden paedophile sites

Greg Virgin runs software company Redjack and is helping the human rights group International Justice Mission, which campaigns against child abuse.

He uses complex algorithms to mine dark net chat rooms for data.

"The typical law enforcement approaches to finding out what computers are being used for are no longer available," he said.

But by analysing the traffic on one particular site, he says he's able to find out much more about its users.

Of more than 10,000 users, he said 2,000 were "producers of content", meaning child abusers who post pictures of that abuse on the site.

Of these, 20% were from the UK, he said.

In several postings users refer to living in particular parts of the UK and ask to arrange meetings.

"They actually divide themselves up into regions - the South West, South East, North East and London," Mr Virgin observed.

US investigators say the amount of child abuse imagery on the net is growing rapidly

He added the site was actually encouraging abuse.

"It's a guide for paedophiles and a support system for paedophiles to get more extreme."

The website DeepDotWeb.com reports on dark net developments.

"On Tor I know about probably 20 to 50 sites from looking at public directories but I guess there are more that are not as public," said its founder, who wanted to remain anonymous.

He added that most deep net users were "disgusted" by the paedophile sites.

"The 'deep web' is still, just an open reflection of the real world thanks to its anonymous conduct, so this problem needs to be tackled in the real world.

"The 'deep web' is nothing more than a peep hole into this unfortunate reality."

God only knows how much worse it can get. Could it reach the point where a large percentage of our children are involved in the making of pornography? I believe it can and will unless we start praying for God to intervene.