By partnering with the Internet Watch Foundation, police officers will be able to spend more time investigating criminals who are creating and accessing online child sex abuse imagery in Bermuda.

According to Detective Inspector Mark Clarke, the UK-based charity will be responsible for scrutinising offending websites and will share any pertinent information with the Bermuda Police Service.

“In the event that the IWF comes across a webpage that is hosted in Bermuda they will immediately alert the Bermuda Police,” Det Insp Clarke, of the Serious Crime Unit and the Vulnerable Persons Unit, said.

He said the IWF would pass on intelligence to the police, allowing officers to see “who is posting and who is viewing these images, which can and very well may lead to arrests not only for the offenders looking at and creating the material in Bermuda but also worldwide”.

Det Insp Clarke added that the IWF would also alert the BPS if they discovered victims or offenders in Bermuda, which could be identified by looking at materials in a room, uniforms and even accents.

He added: “With forming the partnership with Bermuda and the IWF, we can decrease the time taken to investigate websites because if they are doing it for us, we can actually go straight to and deal with the issue instead of the background stuff. We can actually increase the time to investigate the victims and the offenders.”

The partnership between Bermuda and the IWF was announced on May 31 with the launch of the dedicated IWF reporting portal, which provides a quick and easy way for internet users to report online images and videos of child sexual abuse to the anonymous hotline. The launch took place simultaneously in 12 UK Overseas Territories through the partnership made possible by funding from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Det Insp Clarke told The Royal Gazette that while online child sex abuse imagery is a local problem, it was also an international problem that has been further enabled by advances in technology and the internet.

Last year, the IWF took action on 68,092 websites hosting child sexual abuse imagery — a 118 per cent increase on 2014, with 69 per cent of the children assessed as 10 years old or younger.

“The internet does not respect borders, so why should we? By working together with the IWF, the online industry and throughout the territories we can make sure that it doesn’t become a problem that we can’t manage or handle,” Det Insp Clarke said. “One of the cornerstones of the Bermuda Police Service is to protect our vulnerable, which includes our children. This further supports our actions. It also tells anybody who is reading or listening that we will do everything that further protects our children.

“In 2007 we enacted legislation that further protected the child in the online environment. The effectiveness of that legislation has resulted in arrests, convictions and we’ve handed down good, positive sentences as well. But the most important thing that we learnt is that the internet evolves each day.”

Det Insp Clarke said the IWF could ensure images are removed quickly by working with community partners.

“This will prevent other internet users turning on the images and also prevent the revictimisation of the child.

“In the UK, they typically remove content within two hours due to the strong relationships formed through the IWF, police and the industry. This will be replicated with the Bermuda Police Service due to the work spent growing positive relationships and the systems put in place.”

According to the IWF, internet service providers in the UK have voluntarily agreed to block access to any websites on the open web hosting the content through a blocked websites list that is supplied by the charity and updated twice a day. This list was sent worldwide last year.

Det Insp Clarke said there had been no push back to the concept of a working relationship from local ISPs when approached by the IWF and BPS.

“In Bermuda it is my experience that not one company will object to us making any requests when it comes to safeguarding children. They’ve always been the first to say, what else can we do and can we do it better?”

However, Det Insp Clarke also reiterated that the public’s assistance was crucial in ensuring the partnership is effective.

“Silence or indifference can never be supportable, nor should it be,” he said. “We are effective because of the public. Ignoring it does not make it go away.”

He also stressed that reporting was anonymous.

“They are independent of the police and will never pass on reporter details. They will only give us the information we need to catch the criminals behind these crimes.”

• To report online child sex abuse imagery or for more information, visit www.report.iwf.org.uk/bm