Kiwi kids victims of porn rings

BY MICHAEL FOX

A new police unit aimed at protecting children from online sexual predators has already identified Kiwi victims, with authorities warning that offending is becoming more depraved.

The Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand taskforce (Oceanz) - set up to combat increasing incidents of online child exploitation - began operating in October.

Just this week, three New Zealanders were sentenced for online child abuse offences.

On Monday, in Dunedin, 45-year-old truck driver Graeme Murray Purvis was jailed for three and a half years on 22 charges involving the possession, distribution and making of objectionable publications and attempted sexual grooming of a 15-year-old girl.

In Christchurch District Court yesterday, 37-year-old computer programmer Anson Frederick Betts was jailed for 14 months on 17 charges of possessing objectionable publications.

Aaron Raniera Koziarski was sentenced yesterday for one charge of distribution and nine charges of possessing objectionable image files. The 31-year-old unemployed Christchurch cook was sentenced to six months' home detention.

Oceanz head Detective Sergeant John Michael said a recent United Nations report estimated that 200 new child porn images were being uploaded on to the internet daily, with 750,000 predators online at any given time. He fears, however, this estimate is conservative.

New Zealand children were being caught-up in the massive online pornography ring, he said.

"People may think that New Zealand's this little back water country and we're not really involved in it but I can tell you that there are pictures of New Zealand children being sexually abused on the internet," said.

The report showed the billion-dollar child pornography industry was increasing, with new technologies making it easier to access.

The team had already identified two children from explicit images on the internet. They had been removed from their homes and the alleged offenders would face prosecution.

They were also investigating suspected online predators in New Zealand, following tip-offs from their international counterparts.

Aspects of the new unit's work, such as investigations and methods of catching offenders, are kept secret so operations are not compromised.

Mr Michael said sexual grooming where paedophiles work to build a relationship of trust with their victims before they offend - on the internet was rife. Predators were using social networking sites such as Bebo to contact children, some under age 12, before arranging to meet them.

There was a recognised link between possession of child exploitation material and physical offending, with several recorded cases in New Zealand.

BLACKMAIL

Police are seeing video footage shot on webcams which show children and young teens doing acts "that parents would be appalled by," Mr Michael said.

"Sexting" - cellphone texts and pictures of an explicit nature - were used as blackmail by offenders to solicit further images or to arrange sexual encounters.

"It basically is the old pebble that starts the mountain slide and it is hard to stop."

The Department of Internal Affairs had identified the average age of an online predator between 38 and 42 but Mr Michael said there was no one profile.

"The one common factor is their desire to sexually abuse children."

Mr Michael - who prefers the term "child exploitation images" to "child pornography", which carries connotations of consent has warned predators that police will catch them.

"If you try and groom kids over the internet, or you try to trade objectionable material, eventually we'll get you."

OCEANZ SUPPORT

Executive director of the internet watchdog group NetSafe, Martin Cocker, said the new policing unit was "going to be busy".

"We know there's unfortunately quite a bit of trading of exploitative images," he said.

Detective Sergeant Tusha Penny, of Wellington police, said the new unit had filled a hole in the police's battle against child abuse.

In addition to the new cyber unit, Internal Affairs also works on stamping out child pornography. The department has netted between 45 and 50 convictions a year for possession, distribution or production of child pornography.

Internal Affairs censorship compliance manager Steve O'Brien said the new police unit was already proving effective by catching offenders off guard.

Most of the explicit material found by Mr O'Brien's unit was sourced from overseas, mainly via peer to peer file sharing. Offenders in New Zealand often kept their explicit material - "trophies" of their own offending - offline.

If they did upload it, there was a high risk children would be identified and the sentence for distribution was twice that of possession, he said.

Making or distributing child porn carries a 10 year sentence, whereas possession will earn five.

CHANGING LANDSCAPE

The type of child abuse was changing and becoming more horrific, Mr O'Brien said. The size of child pornography collections had also exploded.

Mr O'Brien said the average age of victims was under five. Authorities suspect this it because younger children are less able to reveal the offending.

What you can do to protect your kids:

- Keep computers in a central location.

- Consider software that allows you to check browsing history.

- Make sure your kids know you'll be checking up on what they're looking at.

- Monitor use of chatrooms and social networking sites in particular.

- © Fairfax NZ News