

Home Office warned of 'horrifying implications'
Sunday June 29, 2003 / The Observer. UK
Paedophiles are using the latest mobile phone technology to target schoolchildren...
'We're on the cusp of an evolution in mobile phones that is altering the parameters of the whole issue of paedophiliac contact,' said Rachel O'Connell, a member of a Home Office task force working on internet protection and legislation against 'grooming' - the cultivating of internet relationships with children to lure them into sexual activity...
'It seems reasonable to expect that paedophiles will exploit this capability to get children to record pictures of themselves naked and touching themselves,'...
In Japan, where use of the new phones is widespread, the incidence of child abuse has rocketed, with more than 90 per cent of cases involving an initial contact made by the child from their phone.
Figures given at a recent conference on internet abuse in Japan show that mobile phones are responsible for a 260 per cent increase in arrests in the past year, from 302 to 793. Over the same period, police recorded a 210 per cent rise in the number of violations of child pornography and prostitution laws.