EVIDENCE of child sex abuse images was found on two thirds of electronic devices searched at the border in a trial scheme.
Border Force officials have been scanning phones and laptops of suspected paedos under Operation Excalibur at four UK airports.
Darren FletcherOperation Excalibur – a pilot scheme that enables Border Force officers to detect child sexual abuse material on passengers’ digital devices.[/caption]
And 65 per cent of the devices had evidence of child abuse images.
On a visit to see Heathrow’s scheme, Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips told the Sun on Sunday: “It keeps me awake at night.
“That’s how worried I am about the growing availability and access that people have to child sexual abuse material, both real and synthetic – so AI deep fakes.
“We have to do as much as we can as legislators within our own country to make sure that our laws are keeping pace with that technology, and our law enforcement is able to keep pace with that technology.”
Darren FletcherMinister Jess Phillips visited Heathrow Airport to observe Operation Excalibur[/caption]
Officials use intelligence to target travellers suspected of having child abuse images.
This includes profiling people and working with international police forces.
They search their electronic devices for photos already known to law enforcement that have been “hashed” — which means they have been given an invisible electronic “watermark”.
Victim of online abuse speaks out
Marie, now 28, was contacted when she was 17 by a man on a dating app pretending to be somebody else.
On a video call, he asked her to do certain things and he screenshot those images.
They were used to blackmail her into meeting “his friend” who was actually him.
During that meeting, the “friend” committed a sexual offence against Marie.
“The friend” went on to cultivate a year-long relationship with Marie which was emotionally and physically abusive.
She told the Sun on Sunday: “Once the relationship ended. My mental health really got so bad that I had put a deadline on my life.
“I said I wasn’t going to make it past 20. Obviously, I’m still here today. So through therapy, I was able to get to a stage that I am today.
“However, it’s not something that ever goes away. You wake up every single day, pick up the pieces, get through the day.”
She said to anyone going through similar: “You are not alone. I really want to eradicate that thought, because that is how I felt.
“But you really aren’t. There’s people out there. You’ve got people in your life. There is no shame, there is no fear. You just have to reach out and ask any questions, even if it hasn’t happened yet. No question is silly enough.”
Border Force does this by connecting a cable to the suspect’s phone or laptop and scanning it at Customs.
Currently, they cannot force people to give up their phone for inspection.
But new laws will hand officials powers to make suspects unlock their devices to be scanned.
Darren FletcherTim Kingsberry head of Safeguarding and Modern Slavery for Border Force[/caption]
Tim Kingsberry, Head of Safeguarding and Modern Slavery for Border Force, said: “We’re trying to make the border an unsafe place for those who seek to abuse children, whether that be our children in the United Kingdom or children overseas.
“We have found evidence of the most extreme images which have led to arrests from the police.”
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