Police to monitor chat rooms to thwart paedophiles

Police are to monitor conversations on internet chat rooms in a bid to prevent paedophiles from grooming victims on the web.

Police are to monitor conversations on internet chat rooms in a bid to prevent paedophiles from grooming victims on the web.

Officers in the UK, US and Australia will monitor the sites 24 hours a day, the BBC reported.

The National Crime Squad in the UK is to play a key role in the setting up the surveillance operation, along with the FBI in America.

One of the proposals for deterring paedophiles is to flash up a symbol on computer screens to let chat rooms users know they are being watched.

Police could then intervene if someone is asked for their name and address online.

It is believed that detectives are also pressing banks to withdraw credit cards from people who pay for access to child pornography websites.

The idea of monitoring chat rooms was brought up at a meeting of the Virtual Global Task Force in London, which was set up six months ago to make internet use safer for youngsters.