1. 4 updates

Child protection record hailed

A record number of children have been protected from sexual abusers in the past year, according to new figures. The UK's leading child protection agency safeguarded 790 children in 2012/13, an increase of 85% on the previous year.

Live updates

Ceop: Safeguarding is about spotting individual children

Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) Peter Davies has explained to Daybreak just how the organisation managed to safeguard so many children from child abuse over the past year.

He said: "One of the things we do at the centre is we identify the children who are at risk, often that's through online activity and we get in touch with police forces and children's services in the local area, and we communicate that to them."

"They do a risk assessment and they put steps in place to reduce the risk to the child."

He added: "Safeguarding is about spotting individual children at risk and making them safe."

'Key areas' will be targeted to combat child abuse

A number of key threat areas will be targeted by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) as it moves into the new National Crime Agency. They include:

  • The proliferation of indecent images of children
  • The systematic sexual exploitation of multiple child victims on the internet
  • Organised crime-related child abuse

The organisation's chief executive Peter Davies said: "Moving into the National Crime Agency as one of the four commands, the centre will play a pivotal role in sharing our expertise in protecting children."

Advertisement

Ceop: We recognise the world constantly changes

New figures have shown that a record number of children have been protected from sexual abuse in the past year.

Peter Davies the chief executive of Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) said that not only had they seen increased in the number of reports, but a "large increase" in the number of children protected. He added:

We have also provided thousands of intelligence packages to police forces and children's services, and have reached millions of children with our educational programme teaching them how to be safe.

Despite our successes, we aren't complacent. We recognise that the world is constantly changing and offenders will continue to seek new ways to abuse children, which is why our work with partners around the globe is constantly evolving to ensure we're always one step ahead of abusers.

Record number of children protected from abuse

A record number of children have been safeguarded from sexual abusers in the past year, new figures have shown.

The UK's leading child protection agency safeguarded 790 children in 2012/13, an increase of 85% on the previous year.

790 children have been safeguarded in the past year Credit: Edmond Terakopian/PA Wire

In the past 12 months, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) received 18,887 reports of abuse, 14% more than the previous year.

The growing availability of high-speed internet around the globe is likely to increase the threat to children, the organisation warned.

Back to top