Minister Mthethwa on Cyber Crime and Children

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The Ministry of Police today issued a statement today identifying the protection of children from cyber crime as a priority.

See the full statement below:

PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST CYBER CRIME – A GOVT PRIORITY

Ongoing training of police will form foundation in dealing with this scourge

CAPE TOWN – 16 March 2010.

Recent reports of children who go missing as a result of being lured through cyberspace criminals posing as ‘friends’, often resulting in them being murdered is very disturbing and requires a societal response. Police have a duty to lead this crusade in ensuring those perpetrators are brought to book.

This is a worrying sentiment stated by the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa in Cape Town today. His remarks come barely two weeks after government announced that the development of an integrated and technology based approach to combating cyber crime, including increased capabilities of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster to address the growing phenomenon of this crime will receive priority attention during 2010. The draft cyber crime policy was gazetted on 19 February 2010 inviting public comments and the revised integrated document shall be finalised during 2010.

“We are increasingly worried about incidents of children being abused, murdered and vow to deal with this negative scourge holistically. As government we have prioritized crime against women and children and one of the proactive steps we undertook is the re-introduction of the specialized units to focus on crimes against women and children.”

The Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) capacity is currently at station level in all provinces but these units will be re-established nationally and all funded posts will be filled by 1 June 2010. An audit of all members who are currently in the FCS units in the provinces and those who have worked in the FCS environment but due to career mobility had left the environment, is in progress. 1698 members are already psychologically profiled and have to undergo training in both Detective Learning Programme and FCS courses.

“The capacitating of all police members at station level to be compliant with the Domestic Violence Act, Act 116 of 1998, remains one of the priorities of the Department. A practical step to empower our members to effectively deal with these cases will focus on training around investigating offences emanating from incidents of domestic violence,” stated the Minister.

Domestic violence train-the-trainer courses are also presented at national level during each training cycle to enhance and replenish the trainer capacity of the provinces to present the domestic violence course in the Act. In addition to the domestic violence course, training has also been included in the Basic Training Learning Programme since 2004, and all new police recruits are trained in the Domestic Violence Act during their basic training before they are deployed to police stations.

Minister Mthethwa further revealed that the Ministry is currently interacting with the UK Home Office to further devise various mechanisms, best practices and information sharing in dealing with the abuse of women and children. He said there are similar challenges facing the two countries and through information sharing, South Africa can benefit immensely in defeating these crimes. This cooperation follows the engagements between the two ministries as part of the recent presidential visit to the UK.

Statistics within the Department further indicate a detection rate of 40% and 42% for sexual offences and assault against women and children. “While this detection rate is not satisfactory, it needs to be noted that this is internationally considered a difficult type of crime to detect. This is largely due to the reluctance of victims to face their perpetrator and because often this type of crime occurs between known acquaintances.”

The Minister reiterated while police will continue to spearhead in dealing a deadly blow to this scourge, society also has a critical role to play. “We appeal to parents to actively play a role in their children’s safety, particularly monitor whom they chat and socialize with. As police on the other hand we will have to intensify our efforts in apprehending these cold-blooded criminals.”

Issued by the Ministry of Police - 16 March 2010