Online investigations: protection for child victims by raising awareness

Law Enforcement Agencies throughout Europe remember the years 1999 to 2000 as the initial period when consideration had to be given to the new phenomenon of online sex offenders, and more specifically how it should be policed. The nature of online child abuse and the unlikelihood that the victims will report the crime means that the statistical policing strategies followed by police forces in the United Kingdom are ill-adapted to this form of criminal behaviour. More proactive governmental and police action is required to identify offenders and victims and to prevent further online child abuse.