The G8 Child Protection Strategy has a number of objectives including:

•  improving intelligence gathering, dissemination and sharing;
•  identifying victim and suspect location; 
•  improving law enforcement tools & training and international co-operation.

This co-operation has seen the development of a number of initiatives including work on tackling commercial pay-for-view sites, and liaison with the industry.

In parallel, a two-year implementation study started in late-2003 to look at the technical and legal challenges of creating an International Child Sexual Exploitation Database (ICESDB).

The study, to be handed over to Interpol this autumn, will provide a set of user requirements and technical specifications for an international database to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and accessibility of data for investigating international child sexual exploitation.

The database will provide a network for police to share information on cases of online child sexual exploitation in all participating countries.

Law enforcement officers around the globe will be able to share their own in-country databases with each other. The ultimate aim is the identification and rescue of children who are victims of child sexual exploitation online, and the identification of the perpetrators of such crimes.

The technological advances of the ICSEDB will enable law enforcement agencies from different countries to identify children and locations where exploitation is taking place.

The ICESDB will:

•  focus on investigating new images - for example, officers in another country would realise where British police had already investigated, and so not duplicate the same inquiry.
•  help Interpol and all participating countries to share intelligence on the generation and spread of child abuse images.
•  use technology where possible to identify child victims and locations involved.
•  prevent officers having to view duplicate abuse images already in the system unnecessarily.