Taken from Yahoo News, 01/03/09 (via ITN news)
Over-the-counter cough and cold medicines do not work on children under 12 and can even cause side effects, a review has found.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) found "no robust evidence" that popular remedies such as Lemsip powders, Day Nurse and Sudafed work when given to youngsters.
The MHRA added that the possible side effects - although not dangerous - could include sleep disturbance, allergic reactions and hallucinations.
Many can no longer be sold for use on children under six and pharmacists will be issued with new advice to give to parents about which medicines can be used safely.
Pain relief preparations and remedies used to lower a child's temperature, such as Calpol, are unaffected by the new rules.
For children under six, the MHRA recommends parents stick to simple remedies like keeping their child's temperature down and simple honey and lemon mixtures to ease a cough.
However, the agency identified a list of eight medicines that do work and are safe to use on children under six. They include Beechams Veno's Honey and Lemon, Benylin Tickly Coughs and CalCough TicklyCare Glycerin Lemon & Honey with Glucose.
None should be given to babies under one year old.
Director of Vigilance and Risk Management of Medicines at the MHRA, Dr June Raine, said: "Coughs and colds can be distressing for both you and your child but they will get better by themselves within a few days. Using simple measures to ease symptoms is likely to be most effective.
"Over-the-counter medicines used to treat coughs and colds have been used for many years. However they came into use when clinical trials were not required to demonstrate that they worked in children. This means they were not specially designed for children.
"It is not right to assume safety and efficacy based on children being 'small adults'. Children should have access to medicines that are acceptably safe and designed for their use."
The MHRA said parents should not worry if they have used the medicines in the past and shop shelves will not be cleared of current stocks.
The following is a list of medicines which the MHRA says there is "no robust evidence" on whether they work.
Labels on the remedies in the second group will now be changed to indicate they should not be given to children under six.
The MHRA says it is still safe to give all the medicines listed to children over the age of six, if they feel they will benefit.
* Medicines which can be given to under sixes *
Baby Meltus Cough Linctus
Beechams Veno's Honey and Lemon (not to be given under 12 months)
Benylin Children's Tickly Coughs (not to be given under three months)
Benylin Tickly Coughs (non-drowsy) (not to be given under 12 months)
CalCough Tickly
Care Glycerin Lemon & Honey with Glucose (not to be given under 12 months)
Lemsip Cough Dry
Tixylix Baby Syrup (not to be given under three months)
Pain relief products such as Calpol are not affected by the new advice
* Medicines whose current labelling will be changed under the new guidance *
Beechams Veno's Expectorant
Beechams Veno's Honey & Lemon
Benilyn Childrens Chesty Coughs
Benilyn Childrens Coughs and Colds
Benilyn Childrens Night Coughs
Benylin Children's Dry Cough
Calcold
Calcough Chesty
Calpol Night
Care Glycerin lemon & honey with Ipecac
Cofsed Linctus
Family Meltus Chesty Coughs Honey and Lemon Flavour
Galenphol Linctus
Galenphol Paediatric Linctus
Galpseud linctus
GalsudJunior
Meltus Chesty Coughs with Catarrh
Junior Meltus Dry Coughs with Congestion
Junior Meltus Dry Coughs with Congestion
Lemsip Cough and Cold Chesty Cough Medicine
Lemsip Cough Chesty
Medised for Children
Multi-Action Actifed
Multi-Action Actifed Chesty Coughs
Mutli-Action Actifed Dry Coughs
Non- Drowsy Sudafed Childrens
Non Drowsy Sudafed Expectorant
Non Drowsy Sudafed Linctus
Otrivine Childrens Nasal Drops
Robitussin Chesty Cough Medicine
Robitussin Chesty Cough with Congestion
Tixilix Cough and Cold
Tixylix Chesty Cough
Tixylix Night Cough
Vicks Cough Syrup for Chesty Coughs
Vicks Cough Syrup for Dry Coughs
* Medicines not currently labelled with doses for under sixes and therefore should not be given *
Afrazine Nasal
Allens Pine and Honey Balsam
Beechams Decongestant Plus with Paracetamol
Beechams Flu Plus
Beechams Powders
Benilyn Chesty Coughs (Non-Drowsy)
Benilyn Chesty Coughs (Original)
Benilyn Dry Coughs (Non-Drowsy)
Benilyn Dry Coughs (Original)
Benylin 4 Flu
Benylin 4 Flu
Benylin Cold & Flu Max strength
Benylin Cough and Congestion
Benylin Dual Action Night Cough & Congestion Care
Pholcodine linctus
Covonia Original Bronchial Balsam
Day Nurse
Fenox Nasal
Lemsip Max Cold & Flu
Lemsip Max Day & Night Cold & Flu relief
Lemsip Max Daytime Cold & Flu relief
Lemsip Max Sinus Capsules Non-Drowsy
Sinutab Non-Drowsy
Sudafed Congestion & Headache Capsules Non-Drowsy
Sudafed Congestion Cold and Flu Non-Drowsy
Sudafed Dual Relief
Otrivine Antistin Eye Drops
Otrivine Mucron
Robitussin Dry Cough Medicine
Tixylix Dry Cough
Vicks Cold & Flu Care Daymed Capsules
Vicks Cold & Flu care Medinite Complete Syrup
Vicks Sinex Decongestant Nasal
Vicks Sinex Micromist
Vicks Sinex Soother
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Warning over cough medicines for children
Monday, February 23, 2009
Child prostitutes rescued in US
Taken from BBC News, 23 February 2009
US authorities have rescued nearly 50 child prostitutes - some as young as 13 - in a nationwide operation against the trafficking of children for sex.
More than 570 suspects were arrested during the action, which took place over three nights.
FBI agents and local police forces were involved in the operations which spanned some 29 cities.
Officials say a 16-year-old girl who recruits children as prostitutes is being sought as a priority.
Special Agent Melissa Morrow, of Washington's FBI, said adult prostitutes who were among those arrested tipped authorities off about the girl.
"She is currently 16 and started when she was 13," Agent Morrow said.
"Now she is out there recruiting other juveniles as well," she said, adding that finding her was "at the top of our list", the Associated Press news agency reported.
Cycle of violence
The ages of teenage prostitutes rescued in Operation Cross Country III ranged from 13 to 17.
The FBI said 571 people were arrested on suspicion of the trafficking children for prostitution and solicitation.
"We continue to pursue those who exploit our nation's children," said FBI Director Robert S Mueller III.
"We may not be able to return their innocence but we can remove them from this cycle of abuse and violence."
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Aid workers 'abuse kids as young as six'
Taken from Yahoo News, May 27, 2008
By By David Clarke, Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - Sexual abuse of children by aid workers and peacekeepers is rife and efforts to protect young people are inadequate, said a report published on Tuesday.
The study by Save the Children UK said there were significant levels of abuse in emergencies, much of it unreported and unless the silence ended, attempts to stamp out exploitation would "remain fundamentally flawed".
Accusations of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers around the world have increased in recent years and the United Nations is investigating claims against its soldiers in hot spots such as Haiti, Liberia, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The report said while the U.N. and some non-governmental organizations were stepping up efforts to address the problem, a global watchdog should be established this year to monitor attempts to tackle abuse and champion effective responses.
Save the Children based its findings on visits last year to Haiti, Southern Sudan and Ivory Coast.
The study found a huge range of exploitation and abuse: children trading sex for food, forced sex, verbal sexual abuse, child prostitution, child pornography, sexual slavery, sexual assault and child trafficking.
The focus groups identified children as young as 6 as having been abused, although most were aged 14 to 15.
U.N. peacekeepers were identified as the most likely perpetrators by 20 of the 38 groups, although a total of 23 humanitarian, peacekeeping and security organizations were associated with sexual abuse in the three countries.
"All humanitarian and peacekeeping agencies working in emergency situations, including Save the Children UK, must own up to the fact that they are vulnerable to this problem and tackle it head on," said Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "deeply concerned by the Save the Children UK report", U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters in New York later on Tuesday.
"The abuse of children by those sent to help is a significant and painful issue and one that U.N. peacekeeping has and will continue to address candidly, comprehensively and robustly," Ban said in the statement read by Montas. "Even one incident is too many."
YOUNG GIRLS
More than half of the participants in the study identified incidents of sexual touching and forced sex. Of these, 18 and 23 percent respectively recalled 10 or more such incidents.
"They especially ask us for girls of our age. Often it will be between eight and 10 men who will share two or three girls. When I suggest an older girl, they say that they want a young girl," a 14-year-old boy who works at a peacekeeping camp in Ivory Coast told the Save the Children research team.
And the report said official U.N. statistics appeared to underestimate the scale of abuse, probably because so much of the exploitation was not reported by victims.
"Clearly there is a significant disparity between the low levels of abuse cited in these statistics and the high levels suggested in field investigations and other evidence," it said.
Save the Children said there were many reasons why abuse was not reported: fear of losing material assistance, threat of retribution, stigmatization, negative economic impact, lack of legal services, resignation to abuse, lack of information about how to report abuse and, crucially, lack of faith in a response.
Anecdotal evidence from all 38 focus groups suggested there was an endemic failure to respond to reports of abuse.
"Many U.N. agencies and NGOs working here feel they cannot be touched by anyone," said an aid worker in Ivory Coast.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Megan Davies at the United Nations; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Maybe it’s time that aid workers and peacekeepers are vetted properly before they are allowed to work with people, particularly children. Soldiers who act as peacekeepers need to be trained and vetted. This sort of abuse has been happening all over the world, not just in Africa – countries like Bosnia, Iraq, where the UN and allied forces have been patrolling, soldiers, aid workers, NGO’s and mercenaries have been reported caught with raping civilians, some soldiers have been infected with Sexual transmitted diseases. These abusers seem to think they are immune from prosecution but hopefully they will all be captured and punished.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
For sale: 13-year-old virgin
Tonight, one girl in particular is attracting attention as she sits on a stool by a fire so that she can be seen by passing vehicles. Her heavily made-up, striking face and beautiful pink sari make her look as if she were on her way to a party. But the truth is different. Suli, 14, is a virgin and a bidding war is being held for the right to be the first to sleep with her.
The collection of shelters where she lives houses 59 families, all members of the Bedia tribe, which has a long tradition of caste-based prostitution. Girls born here become prostitutes in a rite of passage into "adulthood" as routine as marriage is to the rest of Indian society.
Once a girl has lost her virginity she cannot marry. The choice has been made and the community celebrates it - this is her non-wedding night.
She claimed it did not matter what the man looked like. "I will go with whoever pays the highest price," she said, before running off as her mother called her for supper.
Nita is only 13 but has opted to follow her sisters into the trade. It is her own "choice", because, she giggled, "I won't have to do any housework."
But in avoiding making chapatis, Nita has signed up to a life in which she will deal with 20 to 30 clients per day, until she reaches her forties. After that, when she is no longer considered desirable, she will depend on any children she may have for support.
Two of her sisters, Ritu, 35, and Manju, 25, have built one of the few stone houses in their village, for which they paid the equivalent of £14,600, and are proud of their success. "There was a lot of poverty, we had nothing to eat," said Manju. "What you see now has come with hard work." They support 50 family members - 35 children and 15 adults.
Elsewhere in India, the birth of a boy is celebrated with dowries paid by the bride's family, one of the reasons given for the high abortion rate for female foetuses. But in the villages around Bharatpur there is a shortage of girls to marry, and the custom is for the boy's family to pay the girl's family a large lump sum before the wedding can take place.
Possibly because the money comes from prostitution, and because any granddaughters will be destined for the trade, the sums are high.
Ritu and Manju paid for four of their five brothers to marry, and now support their sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews.
They earn between 1,000 and 1,500 rupees a day. It was more before the government knocked down their shelters to make room for the highway.
"We need a shelter by the road," they said. "Tell the government to build us somewhere we can work. We used to have 25 or 30 clients a day, now the average is 10 or 15." They said they were able to keep their rates up because they could provide a nice room and running water for their clients, who are mostly married businessmen from Agra.
The prevalence of caste-based prostitution in certain tribes in the region - the Bawaria, Nuts, Bedias, Kanjars and Sansis - came to light after a raid on a brothel in Delhi. Now an attempt is being made to break the cycle by which the girls of each generation enter the trade.
Dr KK Mukerjee, a social work professor at the University of Delhi, who was commissioned by the government to research the scope of prostitution, has founded a group, known as GNK. Supported by Plan International, a child-centred community development agency, the organisation has set up a hostel to look after prostitutes' children.
Many of the women said they did not wish their daughters to follow them into the trade. Ritu and Manju each have a daughter, whose fathers were clients. "My daughter will get educated, and not enter this profession," said Ritu. "I have seen what it is like. I don't want it for her."
A young boy at the hostel told proudly how he had persuaded his grandmother not to push his aunt into prostitution. "My grandmother said that she would kill herself if my aunt did not go into the trade and earn money," he said. "But I persuaded her, and my aunt got married."
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Ethiopian child brides give themselves to tradition
Taken from the Times, UK, May 17, 2008
By Ross Appleyard
Wube-Enat cowers under a brightly embroidered blanket, peering out at the festivities going on around her. Bemused and bewildered, she has little understanding of why she is suddenly the focus of so much attention.
It is her wedding day; Wube-Enat is 10 years old. Her husband, Abebe, is 14.
For the first time in her life she has discarded her grubby smock and is dressed in traditional robes. “I like my new husband,” she says shyly. “But I don't really know him. In fact, I've never met him.”
The ceremony, in the remote Amhara region of Ethiopia, is conducted by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Child weddings are common in this region, although it is illegal to marry below the age of 18. The priest justified conducting the wedding by saying: “We marry the girls so young to ensure they are virgins. If she was older we wouldn't marry her - someone might have raped her.”
Tradition is paramount in this part of Ethiopia but practices such as child marriage can have terrible repercussions for the girls. In Amhara half of all girls are married before they are 15.
Most get pregnant as soon as it is physically possible. Simegne, 12, is eight months pregnant. “I am looking forward to giving my mother a grandchild,” she said. “But I would rather be back at school.”
Almost all the girls give birth at home without proper healthcare and with no way of reaching a hospital if anything goes wrong - which is often.
Achawache was 15 when she got pregnant. She spent 12 days in labour before eventually giving birth to a stillborn baby. She was left incontinent. The condition is caused during a prolonged labour leading to a hole forming between the bladder and the vagina. It was six years before she heard of a hospital that would treat her. Because she was incontinent, bus drivers refused to let her on board to get to the medical treatment she needed. In many cases the condition leads to the girl being ostracised and deserted by her husband. The Government is determined to stamp out child marriages and has increased the penalties for anyone arranging such a ceremony. Getting the message to areas such as Amhara is difficult.
“Part of the problem is that it happens in areas that are so remote communication is difficult,” Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Health Minister, said. “We are also battling against deep-rooted traditions.”
More than 90 per cent of the 77 million people in Ethiopia live in rural areas. The Orthodox Church has a massive influence over the communities. While the Christian hierarchy claims to want an end to child marriages, its priests - there are half a million in the country - still carry them out. “Most of these priests are also carpenters and farmers,” the Church's head, His Holiness Abune Paulos said. “It will take time for the message to filter down that they must not be a part of this tradition.”
The British-based charity Safe Hands for Mothers has been working with the UN Population Fund to increase awareness. “It is not for us to interfere with cultural traditions that go back hundreds of years but we must alert people to the dangers of early marriage,” Nancy Durrell McKenna, its executive director, said. “We are working alongside our partners to make films that show the physical and psychological effects of child marriage on these vulnerable young girls. Some of the stories we have come across are heartbreaking.”
For more information visit safehands.org
Monday, April 28, 2008
Father held daughter in cellar for 24 years
Taken from the Independent, UK
Sunday, 27 April 2008
A woman has told police that she was held prisoner in a cellar for almost 24 years by her father, who repeatedly raped her and fathered her seven children.
Lower Austria police said in a statement that the 42-year-old woman had been missing since August 29, 1984 and was found by police in the town of Amstetten last night following a tip-off.
Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, said the 73-year-old father had been taken into custody.
In a chronology of events outlined in a statement, police said the woman had apparently sent a letter a month after her disappearance asking her parents not to search for her.
During police questioning, she told police her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11 and locked her in a room in the cellar on August 28, 1984.
During the 24 years that followed, she said she was continually abused by her father and gave birth to six children, the statement said. In 1996, she gave birth to twins but one died several days later because it was not appropriately cared for. Her father had then apparently removed the corpse from the cellar and burned it, the statement said.
Police said the woman appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning. She agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be taken care of.
One of her children, a 19-year-old girl, is now in hospital the Lower Austrian town of Amstetten in very serious condition. Police said the father has been arrested but had not confessed.
Gerhard Sedlacek, spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in St Poelten, said the surviving children - three boys and three girls - are aged between five and 20.
DNA tests are expected to determine whether paternity of the children.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Woman, 38, charged with having sex with her young sons
Another incest incident. This sickening act seems to be happening in most part of the world these days...
Taken from Harretz, Israel, 13 April 2008
By Haaretz Service
The Be'er Sheva District Court on Sunday indicted a 38-year-old woman from the southern town of Netivot who allegedly had sexual relations with her two sons, 9 and 11.
The defendant is a religious woman and a divorcee. Her children were taken from her home last year by court order and put into boarding schools and foster care, upon recommendation of a social worker involved in their case.
One of the children, 11, was transferred to a boarding school in B'nei Barak, where he exhibited sexual behavior inappropriate for his age. When confronted, the boy told school counselors that his mother had forced him to have sex with her on one of the occasions he had come to visit her last year.
When arrested by police, the woman said she had committed the act as revenge against her former husband.
The charges state that the woman lay on her bed naked, with only her head covered and forced her children to undress and have sex with her. She then did the same thing with her other son, according to the indictment.
The woman is also suspected of watching pornographic films with her children. The Southern District Prosecution has requested that the woman remain in policy custody until the end of proceedings on the grounds that she could be a danger to her children.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Children removed from sect in Texas tell of girls forced into sex with older men
Taken from the Guardian, UK
Ed Pilkington, April 10 2008
Interviews with hundreds of children removed from a polygamist sect in Texas have revealed that several underage girls were forced into "spiritual marriage" with much older men as soon as they reached puberty and were then made pregnant, according to investigators.
A total of 416 children, mainly girls, have now been taken into state custody after five days of raids on the Yearn for Zion ranch in Eldorado, west Texas. Court documents reveal the children were removed for fear they were at risk of "emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse".
A further 139 women left the ranch voluntarily to accompany the girls, and are being held with them. A local court has granted state custody of all the children until a hearing later this month.
The 1,700-acre ranch is the retreat of a group from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a 10,000-strong splinter sect that broke with the main Mormon church when it denounced polygamy in the 1890s. The compound was built in 2004 in a remote location in the prairies by Warren Jeffs, the then "prophet" of the sect who is currently in jail in Arizona awaiting trial over charges relating to the arranged marriages of three teenage girls. He has already been sentenced to 10 years to life imprisonment in the state of Utah.
The raids were sparked by a telephone call from a 16-year-old girl inside the Yearn for Zion compound to a local family violence shelter on March 29. She said she had been forced to become the seventh "spiritual wife" of a man aged 50, who made her pregnant with a child, now aged eight months, and then made her pregnant for a second time. The girl said other girls, some as young as 13, had been forced to have sex with older men for procreation. She said she had been beaten by her "husband" so badly that on one occasion several of her ribs were broken. The beatings included hitting her on the chest and choking her, the affidavit says, while another woman held her baby.
The police are searching for the man, Dale Barlow. They are also continuing to search for the girl, whose identity has not been released and who has yet to be found among the 416 children taken into care.
The court papers give new details about the isolated life of the sect.
The compound is self-sufficient, in order to avoid contact with the "outsiders' world". In addition to a temple, the ranch includes a cement factory, a school, a cheese factory and medical centre.
Women wear home-sewn dresses and are not allowed to wear red, which Jeffs decreed was reserved for Jesus, or cut their hair. They live on a diet of dairy produce, vegetables, berries, nuts and honey.
Sect members were only allowed out of the compound for emergencies. The 16-year-old who sounded the alarm told the shelter that she had been warned that if she left the ranch, "outsiders will hurt her, force her to cut her hair, to wear makeup and to have sex with lots of men", the documents say.
Several of the teenage girls were found to have children or are pregnant. Many could not spell their last names or state their birth date.
The sect believes that polygamy for men is an essential religious practice. Underage girls were married to older men of the church's choosing, the affidavit says.
The leader of the ranch, Merrill Jessop, has called for a public outcry over the raids, saying the "hauling off of women and children matches anything in Russia or Germany".
Lawyers for the church have filed a court petition to quash the searches on the grounds they are unconstitutional as the authorities lack sufficient evidence to justify the intrusion.
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Latest Update - 25th May 08: Members of a polygamist sect in Texas were overjoyed after an appeal court ordered the state authorities to return 440 children taken from a church compound during a raid. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said on Thursday that the state had failed to show that the children were in any immediate danger – the only justification under Texas law for taking children from their parents without a court order. Child-protection officials argued that five of the girls had become pregnant under the age of 16 and that the sect was essentially a paedophile ring. Warren Jeffs, the “prophet” of the church, is serving a ten-year sentence in Utah for rape. The decision to return the children was seen as an embarrassment for the child welfare authority and as vindication for members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), who claim that they are being subjected to religious persecution.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Father and daughter have child
Taken from Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
APP - April 7, 2008
A South Australian woman has given birth to her father's daughter after the couple had sex.
John and Jenny Deaves reunited 30 years after Mr Deaves separated from Jenny's mother.
Jenny was 31 and, just two weeks after meeting, father and daughter had sex.
"John and I are in this relationship as consenting adults," Mrs Deaves told the Nine Network last night.
"We are just asking for a little bit of respect and understanding."
Their 11-month-old daughter Celeste, shown on TV, appears fit and healthy.
Ms Deaves said soon after reuniting with her father she began to see him as a man first and her father second.
"I was looking at him, sort of going, 'Oh, he's not too bad.'
"Like you might look at a man across the bar at a nightclub."
Ms Deaves brought two children, Samantha and Alex, into the relationship after splitting from her former partner.
Mr Deaves admitted that he "initially" thought having sex with his daughter was wrong.
"Emotions take over. As people no doubt realise, there are times during your life where emotions do rule the heart, it rules the head," he said.
"I knew it was illegal. Of course I knew it was illegal but you know, so what."
Ms Deaves said the physical relationship with her father was like "a sexual relationship with any other man".
For Mr Deaves the sexual relationship was "absolutely fantastic".
A South Australian police media spokesman said: "The couple is being monitored."
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LATEST UPDATE 08.04.08: latest court transcripts have revealed that the father and daughter had another baby seven years ago, who died from a congenital heart defect.
I just hope that the new baby does not have the same defects. This is why it is very wrong to marry family members - firstly it is morally wrong but also there is a big chance that the genes of the two parenst will be too close and the ofspring will have defects/ suffer from mutations.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
French court jails aid workers sent back from Chad
Taken from Yahoo News
by Reuters - Monday, January 28 2008
(Reporting by Thierry Leveque; writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Anna Willard)
CRETEIL, France (Reuters) - Six French activists sentenced in Chad to eight years' hard labour for trying to kidnap dozens of children had their sentences converted into French jail terms of the same length by a court on Monday.
The six members of the aid group Zoe's Ark were arrested in Chad in October and found guilty last month of trying to kidnap 103 African children. They were later flown back to France under a cooperation agreement between the two countries.
The group said they were rescuing orphans from Sudan's Darfur region, a conflict zone across Chad's eastern border, and they intended to fly them to Europe for fostering there.
Most of the children were found to have come from families in Chadian border villages who were persuaded to give up their offspring in exchange for promises of education.
French law does not recognise hard labour and the court in the Paris suburb of Creteil converted their sentences into normal prison terms of eight years at a hearing that did not examine the merits of the case against them in Chad.
The court said that, under French law, the case amounted to "illegal confinement of minors under the age of 15".
Defence lawyers said before the hearing opened earlier this month that the Chadian sentences were not valid because they were imposed in what they described as an undemocratic state after a trial they said was not fair.
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Well done to the French courts for delivering a reasonably tough sentence and exposing these Child Traffickers.
This group of Traffickers said it wanted to place orphaned Darfuri children aged under five in foster care with French families, invoking its right to do so under international law - Yet they did so without the consent of any international body and the UN have said that many of the children were from Chad, not Sudan, and there is no evidence that they are orphans.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Pedophile allowed to work in kindergarten
Taken from Yahoo News, 15 Nov 07
By Reuters
BERLIN - A convicted pedophile sentenced to do community service in a German kindergarten will return to court next week to face charges of abusing two children there, a regional prosecutor's office said Thursday.
The man was allowed to work as a janitor at the Evangelical Kindergarten St Petri in Melle, near the northern city of Osnabrueck, because a court worker missed three prior pedophilia convictions on his record, said Alexander Retemeyer, spokesman for the Osnabrueck prosecutor's office.
The man, identified only as A.B., had been sentenced to 720 hours of community service earlier this year for working on the sly while collecting welfare payments.
"The colleague didn't pay attention and didn't see he had a sexual conviction, so she allowed him to serve in a kindergarten," Retemeyer said. "She didn't read the file."
The prior convictions date from 1988-1990, when the man was living in the former East Germany, Retemeyer said. Though the convictions are listed in the man's criminal record, the details are unclear because prosecutors cannot access his East German police file.
Police arrested the man in April after the head of the kindergarten reported he had fondled himself in front of two children.
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What kind of society do we live in when we cannot stop Paedophiles from operating within our schools? The Kindergarten should have done the necessary paperwork properly and lazyness in no excuse when protecting our children from societys nasty people. Where was the local MP or why didn't Angela Merkel Step in and take action?
100 arrests hit world paedophile ring
Taken from the Guardian, UK, November 5, 2007
By David Batty and agencies
More than 100 people in 19 countries have been arrested in an operation to dismantle a major international paedophile network, police said today.
The arrests follow an investigation into an Italian-based website that produced "tailor-made" child abuse images for 2,500 customers, according to the European police agency Europol.
In the past five months 46 people in the UK have been arrested in the operation, codenamed Koala, according to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop).
There have also been 21 arrests in France, 11 in Spain and eight in Sweden.
"We have identified 2,500 customers from around the world. School teachers, swimming instructors, lawyers, IT executives," said Europol investigator Menno Hagemeijer. Some customers even travelled to the studio to watch and record the abuse and make their own videos.
"These [videos] were tailor-made orders. We want this girl in this pose in this lingerie," said Belgian prosecutor Michele Coninsx.
Europol and the EU prosecution body Eurojust launched the operation last year following the arrest of Marzola Sergio, 42, who ran the website.
He produced most of his videos in Ukraine, where police have identified 21 victims so far.
One of the videos showed a father sexually abusing his daughters aged nine and 11, according to Ceop.
Jim Gamble, chief executive of Ceop, said there were likely to be further arrests from the global investigation.
He said: "Yet again we see the technology used by paedophiles to facilitate child abuse now turned against them as a result of co-ordinated and effective international law enforcement cooperation.
"Operation Koala uncovered the true meaning of 'online child abuse': in this case, the exchanging of images in which real children were subjected to horrific sexual abuse, often to order."
Sunday, July 15, 2007
$660-Million Settlement In Priest Abuses
Taken from The LA Times, July 15, 2007
By Joe Mozingo and John Spano
L.A. Archdiocese's payout to 508 claimants is the largest in the sex scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed Saturday to a $660-million settlement with 508 people who have accused priests of sexual abuse, by far the biggest payout in the child molestation scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church nationwide.
"Some of the victims have waited more than five decades for a chance at reconciliation and resolution," said Raymond Boucher, the main attorney for the plaintiffs. "This is a down payment on that debt long overdue."
The agreement will end all of the pending abuse litigation against the most populous archdiocese in the U.S.
"It's been a long, hard slog," said church attorney J. Michael Hennigan. "I'm delighted to see it's come to a conclusion."
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
Lawyers had been slated to go to court Monday for the first of 15 scheduled civil trials pitting alleged victims against the archdiocese and individual priests. Settling before the legal marathon was considered particularly urgent because the archdiocese faced potential punitive damages, as well as the prospect of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony having to testify.
Although the settlement will effectively end a chapter in the sad saga of clerical abuse that has spanned decades, the resolution will come at a huge cost to the church. More than $114 million has been promised in previous settlements, bringing the total liability for clergy misconduct in the Los Angeles Archdiocese to more than $774 million. The figure dwarfs the next largest settlements in the U.S., including those reached in Boston, at $157 million, and in Portland, Ore., at $129 million.
Hennigan said the archdiocese expected to pay $250 million in cash, with the balance coming from insurers and religious orders.
"Parish assets will not be touched, and the mission of the church will be impacted but not crippled," he said.
Mahony had previously fought victims, their attorneys and prosecutors demanding confidential personnel files that tracked the problems of accused priests and the church hierarchy's reaction to them. As part of the settlement, the archdiocese agreed it will no longer contest the release of files to the public, one of the attorneys in the lawsuits said. A private judge will mediate any objections from individual priests.
Some abuse victims expressed mixed feelings about the settlement, which will give the priests' accusers an average of about $1.3 million each. The agreement will spare plaintiffs the need to testify in court, but at an advocacy group's news conference outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels downtown, Mary Ferrell, 59, said it nevertheless stirred up old pain.
"That amount of money is impressive in that it shows tremendous guilt," she said. "But I didn't file [the suit] for the money…. I would give back the money if I could have my childhood back."
The settlement was welcomed by some national observers.
"The diocese has finally conceded the fact that everyone needs to move on," said Anne Burke, an Illinois Supreme Court justice and former chairwoman of the National Review Board, a panel of lay Catholics formed by U.S. bishops in 2002 in response to the scandal.
Burke said negotiations for the Los Angeles settlement were undoubtedly more complex than many in other dioceses, "but I also think it was prolonged longer than it should have been because the diocese proceeded to fight. Consequently, it's been a long, long time … and it prolonged the agony of it all."
The settlement will resolve the last of about 570 total claims of abuse against 221 priests, brothers, lay teachers and other church employees spanning the last 70 years. The pact will be presented for final approval Monday to L.A. County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz, who had been scheduled to try the first case.
With so many plaintiffs, so much money at stake and the archdiocese frequently at odds with its insurers, negotiations were especially tense over the last few days.
Two major insurance carriers would not stipulate to pay anything until Friday afternoon, when they suddenly agreed to the offer on the table, according to one attorney, who asked not to be named because he was speaking before the settlement was announced.
After the Associated Press first reported Saturday morning that a settlement had been reached, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests scheduled a news conference, canceled it and then scheduled another.
A church representative at one point confirmed a settlement, only to call back minutes later to say it was off.
The accusations of molestations in the archdiocese were part of a national scandal that had been simmering for decades.
However, it wasn't until 2000 that the silent epidemic of priestly abuse exploded into public view.
In Boston, Cardinal Bernard F. Law was swamped by media revelations that he routinely covered up allegations of abuse involving scores of priests, shuffling some of them from one parish to the next without penalty to the priests or notice to their new flocks. On Dec. 13, 2002, the cardinal resigned, asking forgiveness of "all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes."
In California, the Legislature responded to the national outcry by suspending a statute of limitations for one year, allowing childhood sexual-abuse lawsuits to be filed in 2003 regardless of when the incidents allegedly occurred. By year's end, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles had been hit with more than 500 suits.
"If Boston was the beginning and the cornerstone of the scandal, California is going to be the capstone of the crisis," predicted Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and a consultant to plaintiffs' attorneys.
Thousands of emboldened victims stepped forward across the U.S., creating repercussions that have shaken almost every parish.
Facing huge payments to settle abuse litigation, five dioceses, including San Diego's, have filed for bankruptcy protection. At least 10 bishops and archbishops have resigned over their alleged involvement in sexual abuse or in covering up the abuse of others. Parishes have been terminated, schools shuttered and ministerial programs shut down.
In Orange County, the Diocese of Orange two years ago paid out $100 million to 90 alleged victims who had filed lawsuits. As part of the settlement, the diocese released thousands of documents indicating a high-level cover-up of priest abuses.
In San Diego, a bankruptcy judge has set an Aug. 13 deadline for a settlement between sexual-abuse claimants and the diocese. If the two sides cannot reach one, they face an Aug. 23 hearing that may result in the lawsuits going to trial.
In Los Angeles, some 75% of the archdiocese's 288 parishes were served at some time by a cleric accused of molesting, according to a Times study. As the scandal's details slowly emerged, it became clear that the church hierarchy knew about complaints against some priests and that at least a dozen were allowed to continue working in ministry after their conduct with children was questioned.
The archdiocese has issued a stream of mea culpas, acknowledging its responsibility for shielding some of the alleged abusers. At the same time, Mahony strenuously opposed giving prosecutors and plaintiffs' attorneys confidential personnel files that would detail accusations against priests and any actions taken — or not taken — by him and others in the hierarchy.
In February 2004, a lay panel convened by the U.S. bishops' organization ripped into Mahony for his intransigence, saying his refusal to turn over documents "did little to enhance the reputation of the church in the U.S. for transparency and cooperation."
The archdiocese said its resistance was a matter of principle. To disclose "the spiritual, pastoral and psychological counseling of the priests" would be to breach a sacred trust, the archdiocese contended in a 2004 report.
The archdiocese says it now takes all abuse allegations seriously, admitting that in the past a firm denial from an accused priest often used to end the matter. When complaints are made today, church officials say, they immediately notify police, pay for counseling for the victims and, if the complaint is deemed credible, remove the priest from active ministry.
Although Mahony has removed at least 17 priests from ministry over accusations of sexual abuse, his credibility has been called into question by cases like that of defrocked priest Michael Stephen Baker.
In 1986, Baker told Mahony that he had abused two or three boys several years before. Instead of calling police, Mahony sent the priest to New Mexico for treatment and over the years transferred him to nine different parishes, where he allegedly molested 23 boys and girls.
Baker faces 15 criminal charges. Mahony has acknowledged making serious errors in the case, calling it the one that troubles him the most.
The lawsuit that was to be heard Monday involved accusations against Father Clinton Hagenbach, a priest who died in 1987. He has been accused of molesting 18 boys from 1968 to 1986. The archdiocese settled one man's claim against him in 2002 for $1.5 million.
Outside the cathedral Saturday, Ferrell, a retired nurse, said she was 7 years old when Monsignor George Scott started abusing her. She said whatever money she gets from the settlement won't repay her for the hard times of her life, which included alcohol and drugs and her current bout with Parkinson's disease. But it will make her more comfortable and provide an inheritance for her three children and six grandchildren.
"This was 50 years ago," she said. "But it didn't end 50 years ago."
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
US Finds Neglected Iraqi Orphans
Taken from the BBC, 19 June 2007
Two dozen boys have been found starved and neglected at a government-run orphanage for special needs children in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
The children were discovered last week by a US military advisory team that was out on patrol with Iraqi soldiers.
The emaciated boys, some near death, were left naked and covered in their own excrement on concrete floors, images broadcast by CBS News showed.
Real Player - BBC/CBS Video Broadcast
The US soldiers found fully stacked kitchen shelves and new clothes nearby.
The boys had been kept in the shocking conditions for more than a month despite the orphanage having been staffed, the troops said.
Staff unconcerned
The 24 orphans were first spotted during a daytime patrol in central Baghdad by the US 82nd Airborne Division.
"They saw multiple bodies laying on the floor of the facility," Staff Sgt Mitchell Gibson told CBS News.
"They thought they were all dead, so they threw a basketball [to] try and get some attention," he added.
"And actually one of the kids lifted up their head, tilted it over and just looked and then went back down."
Another member of the patrol, Lt Stephen Duperre, said he had found the discovery devastating.
"The kids were tied up, naked, covered in their own waste, faeces"
Lt Duperre said the soldiers found three members of staff cooking for themselves when they entered the orphanage.
Inside was a kitchen full of food and a storeroom stocked with piles of brand-new clothing.
The soldiers believed it was being sold to local markets instead of giving it to the disabled children.
The orphanage's caretaker, who had a well-kept office, and two women employees have since disappeared.
However, two security guards have been arrested on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
The boys have since been transferred to another orphanage in the city and have begun to recover.
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This is the best piece of good news to come from Iraq in along time. I hope these kids have a better life in the new orphanage. Lets pray they will be safe and be placed into care in good homes with good families looking after them.
31 Children Freed From Global Paedophile Ring
Police Identify 200 Paedophile Suspects In Britain After Smashing Online Ring
Taken from the Times, UK, June 19, 2007
By Sean O’Neill
Thirty-one children have been taken into care after British police smashed an online paedophile ring operating in 35 countries.
More than half of the children, who ranged in age from 18 months to early teens, live in Britain.
The international inquiry, called Operation Chandler, has broken new ground by uncovering evidence that many of the men involved were child abusers and not simply consumers of child pornography.
“No investigation has rescued so many young and vulnerable people from a group of hardcore paedophiles,” said Jim Gamble, the head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), which led the inquiry.
At the centre of the paedophile ring was Timothy Cox, 28, from Buxhall, Suffolk, who ran a chat room entitled “Kids the Light of Our Lives”, from which members of the group could watch children being abused live through video streaming and file-sharing technology.
When he was arrested last September, Cox, who worked for his family’s microbrewing business in Buxhall, had 75,960 indecent images – including footage of serious sexual assaults on children – on his computer. He used the nickname “Son of God” when he was online and another identity, “I do it”, when he was trading indecent images. Evidence was uncovered to show that he had supplied 11,491 images to other users of his site.
The material found on Cox’s computer. which was kept in his bedroom at the large farmhouse that he shared with his parents and sister, included 316 hours of film footage. Three officers from Suffolk police spent three months viewing and categorising the material.
Cox pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday to nine offences of making and distributing indecent images of children. Charges of inciting child abuse and procuring children for abuse were dropped.
Judge Peter Thompson said that the images on Cox’s computer included very young children “being subjected to sadistic, painful abuse”. Detectives who interviewed him said that he showed no remorse.
Judge Thompson imposed an indefinite jail term on Cox, saying that the Parole Board would review his detention after he had served four years and eight months.
After Cox’s arrest in September, the administration of the chat room was taken over by a group member whose usernames included “silent-blackheart” and “lust4skoolgirls”. Investigations led Ceop to Gordon McIntosh, 32, the manager of a video-streaming company, who lived in a bedsit in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
McIntosh is in custody on remand, having pleaded guilty to 29 charges of making, possessing and distributing obscene images. He will be sentenced at Luton Crown Court next week. Detective Sergeant Gez Ellis, of Hertfordshire police, said: “When McIntosh wasn’t asleep he was online in this chat room. This was his life.”
Of the 700 suspects identified worldwide as members of the chat room, 200 live in Britain. Half of those suspects, including teachers and others in positions of trust or with access to children, have already been arrested, charged or convicted. The other 100 are under police investigation.
Among those already in prison is a 32-year-old man from Stockport, Greater Manchester, who was jailed for a minimum of seven years last week after admitting child rape.
Graham Conridge, 60, a music teacher from Bedford, who posed online as a teenage boy to persuade girls to strip and perform indecent acts in front of webcams, was jailed for 32 months in April.
Hundreds of thousands of images of abused children that were recovered during the operation are now being examined by victim identification teams around the world.
Mr Gamble added: “This is not about pornography – this is about child abuse. Let’s call them what they are – a ring of paedophiles who abused children online and shared images of that abuse.”
Mr Gamble said investigations into the chat room’s users were continuing around the world, with arrests in Canada, Australia and America.
Closing the net
— Operation Cathedral 1998: international investigators dismantled the “Wonderland Club”, unearthing 180 suspects. It led to the convictions in Britain of seven men who exchanged 120,000 indecent images of children.
Wonderland was the first international online paedophile gang identified by investigators
— Operation Ore 2000-03: began after US investigators uncovered a network of child pornography sites hosted in Texas and accessed by credit card subscribers around the world.
Thousands of Britons’ credit card details had been used to access the sites and police forces faced a deluge of cases.
The lessons learnt led to the formation of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
— Operation Wickerman/ Chandler 2005-present: the ongoing inquiry that began in the US and led to Operation Chandler and the arrest of Timothy Cox.
Cox took the name “Son of God” from Royal Raymond Weller of Clarksville, Tennessee, who ran the “kiddypics” abuse website under the name “G.O.D.”, meaning Galactic Overlord Duplicate. Weller pleaded guilty to child abuse offences in 2006
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I hope these guys get life in prison rather than the 3 or 4 years. It is sad to read that half of those suspects, including teachers and others in positions of trust or with access to children.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Infant Mortality In Iraq Soars As Young Pay The Price For War
Taken from the Independent, UK, 08 May 2007
By Andrew Buncombe
Two wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan Africa.
A new report shows that in the years since 1990, Iraq has seen its child mortality rate soar by 125 per cent, the highest increase of any country in the world. Its rate of deaths of children under five now matches that of Mauritania.
Jeff MacAskey, head of health for the Save the Children charity, which published the report, said: "Iraq, Botswana and Zimbabwe all have different reasons for making the least amount of progress on child mortality. Whether it's the impact of war, HIV/Aids or poverty the consequences are equally devastating. Yet other countries such as Malawi and Nepal have shown that despite conflict and poverty child mortality rates can be reversed."
Figures collated by the charity show that in 1990 Iraq's mortality rate for under-fives was 50 per 1,000 live births. In 2005 it was 125. While many other countries have higher rates - Angola, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance, all have rates above 200 - the increase in Iraq is higher than elsewhere.
Egypt, Indonesia and Bangladesh have made the most progress in tackling child mortality, while Iraq, Botswana and Zimbawe have regressed the most.
Sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime were imposed by the UN in 1990 after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and remained in place until after the coalition invasion in 2003. The sanctions, encouraged by the US as a means to topple Saddam, were some of the most comprehensive ever put in place and had a devastating effect on Iraq's infrastructure and health services.
Precisely how many children died because of sanctions is unknown but a report in 1999 from the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), suggested that between 1991 and 1998 an additional 500,000 died.
Denis Halliday, who resigned as the UN's humanitarian coordinator in protest at the sanctions, said at the time: "We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral."
Kathy Kelly, an anti-war campaigner with Voices in the Wilderness, said last night: "The punishment of children through the economic and military war against Iraq has been the greatest scandal."
Save the Children's report, State of the World's Mothers 2007, found the majority of child deaths occur in just 10 countries - either those with large populations such as India and China, or those with sparse health services such as Afghanistan and Angola. Aids remains one the central factors affecting mortality rates.
"More than 10 million children under age five still die each year. That's almost 28,000 a day, almost all in developing countries," said the charity's US president, Charles MacCormack.
"Vaccines, oral rehydration therapy and insecticide-treated mosquito nets are not expensive. Yet, sadly, many mothers and children lack access to these life-saving measures."
The 10 worst countries
Nine of the 10 countries with the worst infant mortality rates are in sub-Saharan Africa. The other one is Afghanistan, which has the second-worst rate.
1. Sierra Leone: 282 (per 1,000 live births)
2. Afghanistan: 257
3. Niger: 256
4. Liberia: 235
5. Somalia: 225
6. Mali: 218
7. Chad: 208
8= Democratic Republic of Congo: 205
8= Equatorial Guinea: 205
10. Rwanda: 203
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Misery Of Palestinian Children
Taken from The Al-Jazeera News Agency, 05/04/2007
Children throughout the West Bank and Gaza have observed Palestinian Children's Day, which aims to highlight the plight of children living under Israeli occupation.
To mark the day, the Palestinian Network for Children's Rights issued new figures on Thursday showing how the Israeli occupation has damaged the lives of thousands of children.
"In 2007, the Israeli army continues to deploy the same violent policy towards Palestinian children with eight children being killed so far this year," a press release from the group said on Thursday.
"This brings the total number of children killed since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000, by the Israeli army and illegal Israeli settlers, to 860."
Additionally, 5,200 Palestinian children have been arrested by the Israeli army and about 400 are still being held in Israeli prisons and interrogation centres, the statement said.
Palestinian children also suffer unusually levels of stress and mental problems - largely as a result of living in a state of near-constant insecurity.
A child's story
Typical of many Palestinian children is Amna Ghaben. Ten years old, her name in Arabic means to be safe and secure but she has enjoyed little of either.
A year ago an Israeli rocket landed on her family's house in Gaza. Her eight-year-old sister, Hadeil, was killed and 11 other family members were injured in the attack.
Amna suffered shrapnel wounds all over her body. But although the physical injuries have now healed, she remains mentally traumatised.
"During shelling, I'm with them and their father hugs them too, but they keep telling us this house could be destroyed on our heads," her mother said.
Dr Ismail Ahmad, a psychiatrist, has been working with Amna since the attack, analysing her drawings.
He says her drawings are a window into how Amna has dealt with the tragedy.
"The smile is gone from Amna's face, her academic level went down, and she feels insecure in her house," Ahmad said.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
5,000 Child Sex Slaves In UK
Taken from The Independent, UK, 25 February 2007
By Sophie Goodchild and Jonathan Thompson
More than 5,000 children are being forced to work as sex slaves in the UK, including thousands trafficked to this country by criminal gangs, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
An important study of global slavery exposes Britain as a major transit point for the movement of child slaves around the world. Commissioned by social research charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the report paints a shocking picture of an international web of gangmasters exploiting children as young as five, as well as vulnerable women. Many are threatened with violence, then sold into the sex trade or forced to become domestic servants, says the report, to be published tomorrow.
The human trafficking trade now generates an estimated £5bn a year worldwide, making it the second biggest international criminal industry after the drugs trade. Children's charities in Britain say there has been a "dramatic" rise in referrals of trafficked children to sexual exploitation services.
An investigation by The Independent on Sunday has found that gangs, especially those from Romania and Lithuania as well as Africa, are increasingly targeting Britain because markets in other European countries such as Spain and Italy are saturated.
Tony Blair pledged in January this year that he would sign up to a European convention to "stamp out" the "evil" of slavery, which was supposedly abolished 200 years ago next month.
His move was in response to fierce lobbying by MPs and human rights charities.
But the report finds that the UK's response to trafficking is too biased towards law enforcement at the expense of victim protection. It also reveals that many victims are deported to their home country where they face assault from gangs and the threat of being retrafficked. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is urging ministers to draw up policies that treat those in slavery as victims, not as immigration cases.
From this month, police forces are being issued with specially adapted iPods. Officers will be able to play to women too afraid to testify against their abusers messages in their own language, reassuring them they will not be arrested.
Child protection charities also warn of the second-class status in the system of trafficked children. At least 48 children sold into slavery in Britain are missing, because of lapses in care by officials, according to a recent report by the Ecpat UK, which campaigns against the sexual exploitation of children. Ecpat's director, Christine Beddoe, said: "Child trafficking is a contemporary form of slavery but trafficked children are labelled 'undeserving' because they are seen as immigration cases."
Child trafficking is one of the worst violations of children's rights, believes Unicef. "There remains no specialised safe house for trafficked children or adequate care and support for victims," said Sarah Epstein of Unicef UK.
MPs are calling on law enforcement agencies to increase their efforts to catch human traffickers by setting up a central database of the DNA samples, gun profiles and fingerprints of those involved in the trade.
Anthony Steen MP, chairman of the All Party Group on Trafficking of Women and Children, said trafficked women and children are still not receiving the protection they deserved.
"Despite his promise Tony Blair has still not signed up to the convention. In the meantime, these girls who are victims of these gangs are having to look over their shoulders," said the Conservative MP for Totnes.
The Rowntree study was carried out by the University of Hull along with Anti-Slavery International and the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
The Chatroom Language That Spells Danger For Your Child
With the recent discovery of a vast international child pornography ring in Austria, i have found this useful piece in the Daily Mail on secret codes Paedophiles could be using to contact our children in web chatrooms. Of course the best way to ensure our children are safe is to speak to them and tell them of the dangers. Anyway have a read...
Taken from The Daily Mail, UK, 07 Feb 2007
By LAURA CLARK
The secret language children use in online chatrooms was unveiled yesterday to help parents trap paedophiles.
Youngsters use the codes and acronyms - including MOS (Mum Over Shoulder) - when conversing about sensitive subjects with friends online.
But paedophiles have been known to deploy the same shorthand language to try to groom unsuspecting children and teenagers.
The phrases, often derived from text message slang, include NIFOC (Naked In Front Of Computer) and others which are even more direct.
The list of phrases was compiled by anti-grooming software company In Loco Parentis to mark Safer Internet Day yesterday.
Police believe that up to 50,000 sexual predators are surfing the net at any time while studies have suggested that as many as one in five youngsters has been solicited for sex online.
In Loco Parentis software designer Paul Duckett said the firm had drawn on findings from its own screening programmes to create the list.
He said: 'The words are dangerous because if you don't understand what your child is saying or who they are talking to you don't know what they are doing to do.
'You could see the initials LMIRL (Let's Meet In Real Life) and not understand your child might be planning to meet someone.'
He said that paedophiles often use questions such as 'Are your parents around?' or 'Have you got brothers and sisters?'
He added: 'They seem like low-key phrases but parents shouldn't expect to see something obvious. These are not something you can learn quickly and there are many variations.
Paedophiles try to get down to the same level as young people and try to get them to trust them to mould them to whatever they want to do.'
He warned that youngsters could be easily led into divulging personal information such as phone numbers.
Mr Duckett added: 'With a little bit of information, in a matter of minutes a paedophile could have found out their whole background, for example by tracing phone numbers.
'They can convince a child they know them and suddenly they feel comfortable and safe.'
The initiative coincided with the jailing of three paedophiles who used Internet chatrooms to plot the rape of two schoolgirls.
Two of the men discussed modelling their crimes on the Soham murdersof Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. However they left a trail of computer 'conversation' which formed part of the case against them.
Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of illegal and inappropriate activity online and help safeguard children from online child abuse and cyber-bullying.
The In Loco Parentis software shuts down the computer or emails parents when a codeword from a banned list is used.
It also allows parents to monitor and screen the e-mail addresses of 'friends' their children chat to online.
The product is backed by child safety campaigner Sara Payne, whose eight-year- old daughter Sarah was murdered in 2000 by sex offender Roy Whiting.
She said: 'No parent wants to hold their children back, or stop them learning and enjoying what the Internet has to offer. But their safety should remain our number one concern.'
Millions of youngsters are registered with sites which allow users to create mini-homepages with pictures and personal profiles, such as MySpace and Bebo. Friends are also increasingly using webcams to see each other as they chat.
As a result, ministers are urging schools to teach 'safe e-etiquette' and ensure pupils are aware of their right to personal privacy.
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Further Reading:
Daily Mail: Online safety guide for kids
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Global Child Porn Ring Uncovered In Austria
Taken from The Times, UK, 07 Feb 2007
By Mark Bridge and agencies
Austria has uncovered a vast international child pornography ring involving 2,361 suspects from 77 countries who viewed videos of young children being sexually abused.
Guenther Platter, the Interior Minister, said: “This is the largest case of the distribution of child pornography ever.”
Mr Platter said the videos included images that showed “the worst kind of child sexual abuse.”
Harald Gremel, who headed the police investigation said: “Girls could be seen being raped, and you could also hear screams,” adding that the children were aged 14 and under.
The Austrian authorities said 72 of the suspects were based in Britain; 23 are from Austria; 607 from the United States; 466 from Germany and 114 from France.
Police said that the Austrian suspects, who ranged in age from 17 to 69, included students, civil servants and retired people.
The suspects were identified after they viewed child pornography videos on a Russian website hosted by an Austrian internet provider last July.
Eight videos were illegally uploaded onto the website from a London server. Some 8,000 viewers logged on to the site in the space of 24 hours before police shut it down and tracked the suspects through their internet addresses in an investigation named Operation Flo.
Mr Gremel said that the videos showed children as young as five years old. He said: “The videos were presumably produced in eastern Europe.”
Police said that investigations are continuing in Britain and in Russia to identify and arrest those behind the videos.
The 23 suspects from Austria have been called in for questioning but there have been no arrests yet. A police spokesman said he expected warrants to be issued soon.
He said that fourteen of the suspects admitted owning child pornography, some in large quantities, and that some said they had passed the material on to other people.
Possession of pornographic material showing children under the age of 14 can lead to a two-year prison sentence in Austria. Those found guilty of producing or distributing such material face up to three years in jail.
Police have confiscated 31 desk top computers, seven laptops, 23 external hard drives and more than 2,000 CDs, DVDs and videos containing child pornography.
Austrian investigators also identified suspects from Algeria, Iceland and Venezuela. The investigation on suspects outside Austria has now been handed over to the countries concerned.
