Sir, Cristina Odone (Thunderer, September 12) lambasts the payment industry — and in particular Visa — for hiding behind the limits of national legislation to condone the proliferation of child pornography.

Visa globally has enforced tight rules in relation to child pornography. No Visa member bank, anywhere in the world, may provide access to the Visa system to organisations that trade in child pornography. If they are caught doing so they are expelled from the system.

Finding out who is dealing in this material is not straightforward. Perpetrators are tenacious and often backed by international criminal organisations. Visa has hired the services of an organisation which uses its advanced search technology to scan the internet round the clock to find sites displaying the Visa logo and selling child abuse pornography.

The target is constantly moving, but our own efforts combined with national blacklists operated by the banking sector, the efforts of the Internet Watch Foundation and the Home Office’s recent Violent Offender & Sex Offender Register initiative all contribute to keeping our children safe.

COLIN GRANNELL
Paddington, London

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