TODAY is Safer Internet Day.

Jamie Bowman investigates its serious message and tells how the campaign is growing in strength...

CO-ORDINATED in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, Safer Internet Day, which takes place on February 7, sees hundreds of organisations get involved to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

The campaign continues to grow from strength to strength and last year’s event saw an incredible 1,140 organisations get involved in supporting the day.

Detective Sergeant Peter Jarvis

Globally, Safer Internet Day is celebrated in over 100 countries, coordinated by the joint Insafe/INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission, and national Safer Internet Centres across Europe.

The day offers the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role we all play in helping to create a better and safer online community.

It calls upon young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers, and wider, to join together in helping to create a better internet.

The cyber-crime unit in St Asaph

Here in North Wales, it’s over two years since North Wales Police recognised the demand and threat posed by cyber crime and since November 2014, they have been committed to training over 100 officers and police staff in the skills and processes required to conduct open source research online.

At the same time the Cyber Crime Team, all of whom have received enhanced training, have assisted with a number of high profile investigations as well as forging links with local businesses and the National Crime Agency to ensure key messages to identify and reduce the opportunities of falling foul of this ever increasing problem. 

A visit to Force’s base at St Asaph shows the energy and resources the team are putting into the online battle with piles of computer equipment and mobile phones scattered around a room which looks more like a laboratory than an office.

“Over the last three to four years cyber crime has increased significantly,” explains Supt Steve Williams, as we sit down in his office.

“Crime is changing across the world and we need the trained officers who can deal with the public.

“On occasions we will be playing catch up with the technology, but we have to keep learning and developing as an organisation.” 

With the growth of the internet, social media, online shopping and banking and connected devices, cyber crime has become a powerful tool for criminal organisations and individuals. 

While cyber crime is often run on a huge and sophisticated scale, it is not just limited to large criminal organisations and includes crimes committed at much more personal levels such as bullying, identity theft or stalking.

For Supt Williams, two predominant examples of criminal activity are currently the focus for Steve and his team.

“The main issues which are affecting the general public are fraud and online dating,” he says.

“One growth area is what is becoming known as ‘sex-tortion’ which is where mainly young men will go on to websites and interact with females on the site.

“They will be asked to engage in sexual acts and unbeknown to them it will be recorded – almost immediately they will get a demand for money with the threat that they will be exposed on Facebook or something similar.” 

Nationally police have revealed an unprecedented rise in what is a relatively new crime with more than 900 cases reported last year – more than double the total for the whole of 2015.

But senior officers at the National Crime Agency fear the true scale of the problem is far bigger, with many victims too ashamed to report their involvement to police.

Of particular concern is the case of four recent victims who became so desperate at the thought of being publicly humiliated that they took their own lives.

“Online dating is right for many people, but this is more about people losing their inhibitions and becoming engaged in a sexual act and not knowing the consequences,” says Supt Williams.

“We’ve seen cases of people going on to commit suicide because they’ve been exposed like this and our message is if it looks too good to be true it probably is.” 

The crime, which is officially known as ‘webcam blackmail’, has increased alongside the use of social media by growing numbers of people, particularly in their teens and twenties.

Some of the victims are as young as 14. While the majority are in the 18 to 24 age bracket, there are also some in their 50s to 80s. More than 90 per cent of victims are male.

Evidence shows that organised crime groups – mostly based overseas – are behind this crime with Supt Williams mentioning groups in the Ivory Coast as a particular problem.

“For them it’s a low risk way to make money and they can reach many victims easily online and victims are often worried about reporting these offences to the police because they are embarrassed.

“You have to remember that a lot of the time you are not even talking to a female – it’s a machine or a recording and just a series of clips that are being played over and over.

“If people don’t report it the blackmail wont go away and some think if they make a payment it will go away also but there will be demand after demand so people need to confront it.

“Safeguarding is the primary objective – we are not going to trace these people to Russia or the Ivory Coast so we have to concentrate on prevention. Making sure the support is there for victims and there is an understanding voice on the phone when they contact us.” 

Detective Sergeant Peter Jarvis of the North Wales Police Cyber Crime Team added: “In most of the cases the videos have not actually been distributed, but it has nevertheless been a difficult and traumatic ordeal for the people involved, who are understandably very worried about the consequences of such images and videos being posted online.” 

“The blackmailers are calculated and malicious and have complete disregard for the people they’re exploiting.

“Cases of this type are notoriously complex and because offenders’ addresses are usually traced back to foreign countries, they often, despite our best efforts, go unsolved. We are working closely with partners such as the National Crime Agency.

“However the only real way to prevent this from happening is by not taking part in such activity at all.” 

“The moment you take part in such an online video, you become vulnerable to exploitation and sadly it’s the blackmailers who instantly take control of the situation.”