Police, child welfare groups and telecoms industry experts will work together to try to trap paedophiles using the internet.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, announced the new unit only weeks after the Chief Inspector of Constabulary said that some police forces were being swamped by internet child porn investigations.

The Centre for Child Protection on the Internet will be the first organisation in the world where police, the telecoms industry and child welfare groups work together. It is expected to start next April if proposals for the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the British version of the FBI, now going through Parliament, become law.

Mr Clarke said the centre would focus on paedophiles who use the internet to distribute child porn images and “groom” children for physical abuse. It would aim to reduce the harm caused to children, families and society.

“Protecting children is a key priority for the Government, and that applies online as well as offline,” Mr Clarke said.

“Online abuse by definition crosses geographical police force boundaries so it makes much more sense to tackle the problem at national level.” The centre would help the police to do their job more effectively. The centre will have about 100 staff, including 50 investigators and experts seconded from industry. Government spending will be about £6 million a year but the Home Office said industry partners were likely to provide an extra £1 million in technology support and seconded workers’ salaries.

The centre will enable suspicious websites and users to be reported round the clock. It will also offer information and advice to victims and potential victims, examine intelligence on sex offenders and carry out investigations to identify high-priority targets. The new unit will manage the police’s national database of child abuse images, which is used to help to identify victims and offenders.

Wes Cuell, of the NSPCC, said: “Placing the new centre within the Serious Organised Crime Agency puts online child abuse as a national police priority and sends out a strong message that the internet is no longer a market place for abusive images of children.”

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