CyberTip reports and indecent images

What is a CyberTip Report?

A CyberTip report is an online reporting tool enabling the public and industry to report indecent images of children, incidents of grooming and child sex trafficking found online.

National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC)

US law requires electronic communications companies or companies that provide remote computing services to report child sexual abuse material to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) ‘as soon as is reasonably explicable’. This is known as a CyberTip report.

In 1998 NCMEC noticed an increase in the number of reports relating to online child sexual exploitation and therefore created the CyberTip line. A CyberTip report must contain information about the suspected perpetrators such as an email address or an IP address. A single type CyberTip report might contain thousands of images linked to a single account of thousands of IP addresses. The report could relate to a single person using multiple devices or relate to multiple suspects and victims. Reports to NCMEC have grown extensively from approximately 110,000 reports in 2004 to over 18.4 million reports in 2018.

What happens after a CyberTip report is made?

NCMECs systems analyse the report to identify a location for the IP address and the information would then be made available to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Where the incident/offender is based in the UK a referral will be sent by the NCMEC to the National Crime Agency (NCA). Where the referral is urgent there is an out of hours arrangement that enables the NCA to deal with the report.

The majority of reports received by the NCA come from the NCMEC. There has been a huge increase in the volume of referrals to the NCA.

What happens when the NCA receive a referral following a CyberTip report?

Staff at the NCAs referral bureaux will assess the CyberTip report to determine the nature of the offending and the identity/location of the perpetrator. They will also ascertain whether there is an ongoing risk and threat to a child.

The referrals will be graded as follows;

• Grade 1 – an immediate threat to a child’s life which is prioritised and acted upon as soon as possible
• Grade 2 – a serious crime against a child which is prioritised and acted upon as soon as possible but within 2 days
• Grade 3 – prioritised after grades 1 and 2 and generally dealt with by local police forces based upon location

What will happen next?

Once a referral is received by a local police force or dealt with by the NCA the matter will be investigated.

This could involve police attending at the suspected perpetrator’s home address, arresting a suspect and seizing electronic devices in order to have the same analysed. Alternatively, police may obtain a warrant in advance and attend at an address and seize devices without making an arrest.

An investigation will follow which could involve a suspect being interviewed under arrest or invited for a voluntary interview. As stated above electronic devices would be analysed and dependent on what is found on the devices, individuals could be prosecuted in relation to offences of indecent images.

Olliers Solicitors – specialist solicitors for indecent image offences

Olliers team of specialist lawyers can assist if you are under investigation for offences of indecent images including making indecent images or possession.

We have many years of experience of dealing with indecent image offences and understand how daunting the situation may be. We promise not to judge and will work with you to achieve the best outcome.

At Olliers we regularly speak to clients who have had computer equipment and phones seized by the police. On the one hand it is a waiting game but there is still a lot that can be done.  We always ensure that we make early contact with the police and confirm the anticipated timeframe for the investigation with the police. We can discuss with our clients the circumstances that may have led to their material being seized. We will give our clients an opportunity to discuss any anxiety they may feel. Many want to discuss worst case scenarios and we can advise on the different offences of possessing, distributing and producing indecent images. We can also explain the different categories of offences and current sentencing guidelines.  We can also attend a voluntary interview with our client.

If you or a loved one is under investigation in relation to an indecent image offence, please contact our new enquiry team on 0203 883 6790 (London) or 0161 834 1515 (Manchester), email info@olliers.com or complete the form below if you would like us to contact you.