Hon Dr Richard Worth

Minister of Internal Affairs

28 May 2009

More money to fight child abuse image trade

The campaign against the child pornography trade has received a $2.4 million boost in Budget 2009, Internal Affairs Minister Richard Worth says.

The extra funding will help the department manage a significant increase in the demand-driven volume of censorship investigations, prosecutions and defended hearings involving distribution or possession of child sexual abuse images, Dr Worth said.

“This additional funding, over four years, will ensure that the Department of Internal Affairs’ censorship inspectors continue to play a major role in the global and domestic detection of offenders who collect, distribute and make pictures of children being sexually abused.”

The Censorship Compliance Unit is recognised internationally for the intelligence it supplied and its forensic work in combating child sex abuse through the Internet. In the 13 years since the team was set up, it has developed its own computer software and capability in detecting offending by New Zealanders.

“The additional funding will also ensure the team can respond quickly and effectively to international operations, particularly in trying to identify and save the young victims being used by pornographers,” Dr Worth says.

“We must play our part in the international fight against this trade. This injection will ensure that those who traffic in these images will be caught.”

The additional funding will boost the unit’s budget for 2009/10 by more than 25 per cent from its current budget of $2.1 million a year.

ENDS

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