2 new private partners join Virtual Global Taskforce in effort to combat online child sexual exploitation

WASHINGTON – Two new industry partners have joined the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), an international alliance of law enforcement and private sector agencies dedicated to combating online child sexual abuse.

Kids Internet Safety Alliance (KINSA) and NetClean both signed agreements this month expressing their commitment to working with the VGT to protect children online. Both organizations were voted in by the VGT board of managers at the last VGT meeting in December 2012.

KINSA is a non-profit organization that helps to protect and rescue child victims of sexual abuse whose images and movies are traded on the Internet. NetClean is an organization that develops technical products to stop the spread of online child abuse images.

VGT Chair Ian Quinn, head of the Cyber Crimes Center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said that the VGT recognizes that the fight against online child sexual exploitation cannot be undertaken by law enforcement alone.

"Our private sector partners play an important role in the mission of the VGT by sharing their knowledge and resources in our unified agenda," said Quinn. "By joining the VGT as industry partners, these organizations demonstrate their commitment to helping reduce the threat to children everywhere."

"Kinsa is proud to have been accepted as a public partner in the Virtual Global Task Force, the preeminent organization of its kind in the world," said Paul Gillespie, president and CEO of Kinsa. "Kinsa's ongoing efforts to train police officers and prosecutors from developing nations has been widely acknowledged and praised by the global law enforcement community as being extremely effective and successful in saving children everywhere."

Christian Berg, CEO at NetClean commented, "Due to the borderless nature of online crime, law enforcement need to work quickly and collaboratively to combat the threat to children and disrupt criminal organizations. With the help of groups like the VGT we can bring together specific areas of expertise from around the world to help fight the spread of child sexual abuse material."

The other VGT private partners are: End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes network (ECPAT International), International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE), the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), PayPal, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, World Vision Australia, Research In Motion and The Code.

The nine VGT law enforcement member agencies are: HSI; the Australian Federal Police; the United Kingdom's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre; the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre, a division of the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the Italian Postal and Communication Police Service; New Zealand Police; INTERPOL; Europol; and the Ministry of Interior for the United Arab Emirates.

For more information on the VGT, visit the Virtual Global Taskforce web site.