TMCnet News
Parents urge child porn to be tackled on internet [Herald, The (Scotland)](Herald, The (Scotland) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The parents of murdered children April Jones and Tia Sharp have demanded more action to tackle child porn on the internet as ministers and technology giants agreed a new crackdown. Five-year-old April's parents Paul and Coral Jones and 12-year- old Tia's father Steven Carter said their children's killers were spurred on by sick images online. Their comments came after senior figures from technology providers were summoned to Parliament for a meeting with Culture Secretary Maria Miller. The four main UK internet service providers (ISPs) have agreed to provide an extra pound(s)1 million funding for the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to help it work with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop). David Cameron hailed the "important steps". He said he was happy to meet the bereaved parents to discuss the issues. "I am personally committed to making sure we drive action on this agenda," the Prime Minister said. Mark Bridger, who killed April in mid-Wales, and Stuart Hazell, murderer of Tia in south London, were both found to have accessed child and violent porn, and some experts argue there is a link between their obsessions and their actions. Mrs Jones said she would keep pressing the Government to take action. "April was a fighter from the word go and I promised her I'll do this for her," she said. "I said I'll help other children, so their family don't have to go through this, their brothers and sisters . "I just want it stopped and I think the Government should put more pressure and get it done now." Representatives from Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, O2, EE and Three were summoned to the meeting in Westminster. Under current arrangements, the IWF only acts on content reported to it rather than proactively seeking out illegal images. In a statement, the UK's four largest ISPs - BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media - said they would work with Government and Ceop to establish how best the additional funding could be spent. It said: "ISPs have a zero tolerance to this material. This funding will help to target those individuals that create and distribute the content." But Shadow Culture Minister Helen Goodman said: "The internet service providers are still refusing to put filters on as default for all customers." (c) 2013 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |