Government defends departments' handling of child porn

Phil Goff

The Government is defending its departments against allegations of inaction in fighting child pornographers after an international magazine questioned whether New Zealand was becoming a "haven for paedophiles".

The article in yesterday's Time magazine came after United States agents gathered the names of more than 95,000 people who received child pornography by using their credit cards and traced them to countries including New Zealand and Australia.

At least two hundred people were arrested in Australia based on the list.

Justice Minister Phil Goff could not confirm if there had been any arrests in New Zealand but he defended the police and Internal Affairs Department investigators.

'I have confidence, and anti-pornography campaigners have confidence, in both groups as being effective, therefore I am not challenging how they carry out operational activity," he told National Radio.

Act MP Deborah Coddington has criticised the lack of arrests here since the list was provided in September.

Pornographers may have gone to ground because of publicity over the Australian arrests and the Time article, but Mr Goff said he was confident they would be caught.

"It's up to people who are experts in this area, not journalists writing magazine articles, to say whether the tactics we are employing are successful."

Mr Goff said New Zealand authorities constantly got and exchanged names of possible paedophiles with other countries and each case needed to be properly investigated to ensure convictions.

"The amount of investigative work that needs to go into this is not a simple straightforward matter," he said.

"Many of the images that are held on computers, for example, are encrypted."

The multi-agency investigation into information received from US Customs was being overseen by Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Long and was proceeding appropriately, he said.

The joint team had conducted many investigations since it was established in 1996 and nearly 150 offenders had been convicted in the past two years, with 15 imprisoned.

The Films, Videos, Publications and Classification Amendment Bill, scheduled for a second reading next week, intended to increase the search powers available to authorities and to increase tenfold the severity of some penalties.

Police Minister George Hawkins was only told about the list on Wednesday but said that there should not be political interference in police and Internal Affairs work.

He was "comfortable" with how the list was handled and denied New Zealand was a "soft touch".

"We do things in a thorough way, not gung-ho, we actually gather the evidence, get it all together and then move."

He declined to comment on how he thought the Australians had handled the information.

"I'm not commenting about how the Australians do it -- we do it differently and we have a really good record of success, one of the best in the world."

The Times article was "sensational", he said. "It's without a decent basis of fact."

In New Zealand, Stop Demand Foundation campaigns against sexual violence against children.

Their spokeswoman, Denise Ritchie, said she believed the Time magazine article had sensationalised the issue.

"I was interviewed for the article. We don't know anything specifically about this list but I thought the slant that was taken by Time was a little unfairly critical and sensational."

She said it was ridiculous and a "wind-up" to suggest New Zealand was a haven for paedophiles.

"Even the headline was sensational... and I think it would be fair to say that it borders on a bit of kiwi-bashing."

Ms Ritchie said Stop Demand was "extremely satisfied" with Internal Affairs' performance in chasing those involved in child pornography.

"They've got a proven record -- since 1996 they've investigated over 500 New Zealanders who have been trading and possessing child sex abuse images."

Ms Ritchie said internationally New Zealand's action against child pornography was up with the world's leaders.

"I think that what you'll find in a number of jurisdictions, probably including Australia, that when names are provided to the authorities in those countries you'll see a flurry of activity -- it's very reactive.

"I think the way New Zealand authorities have operated in the past has been in a very proactive way."

Stop Demand did believe, however, that the Government was "dragging the chain" on passing new legislation to toughen up penalties for child pornography.

She said child pornography had got much worse and more prevalent since the advent of the internet.

If Internal Affairs was not following up any information received from the United States, Stop Demand would be worried.

"Of course it is a concern to anybody that if there is a list out there and people on the list have not yet been caught, what is the strategic reason why little, if anything, has been done about that list?"

- NZPA