In A First For India, Kerala Cops, Interpol Team Up To Fight Child Abuse

The International Criminal Police Organization, popularly known as Interpol has tied up with a wing of the Kerala Police to fight global online child sex abuse. As part of the tie-up, Kerala police have set up India's first task force to combat exploitation of children online. The team will be trained in capacity building by the Interpol.

Interpol official Guillermo Galarza says an estimated 8 million reports of online child sex abuse have been passed on to India by the International Centre for the Missing And Exploited Children in the United States. This year, over two million reports have been sent to India, the official added.

"The reports that we have sent to India earlier, never made it to Kerala or any other state. This April, we have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with National Crime Records Bureau in Delhi and we will ensure that the information is dispersed to all concerned states, including Kerala. We are also checking if we can enter an MoU with Kerala directly," Mr Galarza, who is also a senior in-charge at the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children said.

Jon Rouse, Senior Detective and part of the Interpol told the media in Thiruvananthapuram that they will provide all support to the team, "Kerala is setting up the first dedicated Indian task force to combat online child exploitation. At the moment, millions, literally millions of pieces of information come to India from the National Centre of Missing children in the US. And at the moment, the leads that might lead to the rescue of a child, are not acted upon", he said.

Last month, the Kerala police had busted a child pornography racket. Code named PHunt, it led to 28 arrests. This racket was busted soon after the first taskforce was set up after a training session with Interpol officials.