25 Sep 2013

Technology aiding online child abuse

7:50 am on 25 September 2013

Online safety agencies say the making and publishing of child sex abuse images is a growing problem, because of more advanced phones and computers.

A report from an independent monitoring group set up by the Department of Internal Affairs says there were more than 1.2 million attempts in New Zealand to access sites known to contain child abuse images in April this year alone.

The figures from the Independent Reference Group, which maintains the Digital Child Exploitation Filter, count the number of mouseclicks to the sites.

ECPAT Child Alert director Alan Bell is blaming increasingly portable devices like smartphones and iPads, which he says can be used to both take and upload images anywhere.

Netsafe director Martin Cocker says improved encryption technology also makes it easier for paedophiles to operate online.

However, he says improved technology is also being used in the fight against online exploitation of children.