A new police unit is being launched to protect kids from online sexual predators and the dangers of social networking sites.
The cyber cop taskforce, called Oceanz Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand is a reaction to increasing numbers of cases where children are exploited on the internet.
Predators are using social networking sites like Bebo to "groom" children, with some offenders organising to meet the children for sex. Several have been caught and convicted.
By May last year, an estimated 1.7 million New Zealanders had a Facebook profile, with the numbers using Bebo thought to be higher. MySpace remains popular along with countless chatrooms and dating sites, most of which have age restrictions.
Wellington-based Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Holden is heading the new unit, which will recruit staff in the next couple of weeks.
Netsafe spokeswoman Lee Chisholm says her internet safety organisation supports a specialised police unit working solely on children's online safety.
But Holden and Chisholm warn the new unit does not mean parents can be complacent about their children's online activities.
"It will be extremely dangerous for parents to think that this will keep their children safe. There will be so many ways that children can access inappropriate material or perhaps get into conversations with people they should not be speaking to," Chisholm says.
Parents must familiarise themselves with what their kids are doing on the internet and talk openly to them about their online friends as much as they would school or neighbourhood friends.
Recent examples of offenders targeting children online include 33-year-old Shaun Jason Green, who last week pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on the Bingbox site. Christchurch District Court heard he told her he was 19, and ended up having sex with her five times.
Holden told the Sunday Star-Times the team is the first of its kind in New Zealand and will have wide-ranging powers to "monitor and actively patrol".
"We've got an increasingly high percentage, about 75%, of New Zealanders, who have access to the internet. We have shown that we're as high as any modern western country."
Holden is reluctant to talk about how his staff will police cyber space but says problem areas (and internet users) will be monitored and targeted. He says the online realm is a challenging one, with technology advancing daily, but his team will be well prepared to cope.
"We need to keep children safe and to do this we need to keep in step with these advances."
Oceanz will work closely with Netsafe, overseas law enforcement and the Department of Internal Affairs, which investigates child pornography.
Chisholm told the Star-Times the new unit would strengthen an already firm relationship with police. "It's going to be great to have their team to refer to when we get calls about stuff that's concerning people."
Holden says some offenders and victims may be "very computer savvy" while others are not at all. His investigators will be able to use both to their advantage.
Some offenders may arrogantly think a small police unit can't catch them, he says. "They need to know... We'll catch you all right."
WEB WOES
March, 2007: 42-year-old Jason Wales was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court to three years and nine months' jail for unlawful sexual connection with a 15-year-old girl he met online. He admitted grooming the girl for sex and having objectionable material.
July, 2006: A distraught Christchurch father contacted media after finding his teenage daughter had invited strangers home for sex after meeting them on Bebo.
July, 2005: A Christchurch mother kicked her daughter out of the family home after she found the 18-year-old had set up a webcam peep show in her bedroom and was posing naked for online photos.
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