Paedophiles to have internet activity monitored

Jul 19 2009 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

PAEDOPHILES in the North are to have their internet activity monitored thanks to new software developed by a man who suffered sex abuse as a child. Mike Kelly reports.

WHEN he was just three years old Bill Jenkins was put into care where the abuse he suffered at the hands of his so-called carers has stayed with him throughout his life.

He said: “It was abusive care, there was no one there for us, no one listened. I kept running away. I was in distress. It was awful.”

In 1971, at the age of 17, he managed to get away from the abuse by joining the Navy.

“I went into the communications branch and gained an understanding of technology. And being in the Navy kept me institutionalised in a positive way.”

Bill left the Navy in 1978 but what had gone on in his childhood haunted and angered him. With his interest and expertise in computer technology he saw a way of channelling these feelings in a positive way.

He founded Securus Software Limited and in 2002 the company launched a software package to monitor inappropriate computer use. It was first introduced to schools, listing every website visited by users, monitoring texts in every application - on or offline, saved or not - having been programmed to pick up on key words and phrases.

Bill said: “If there was any inappropriate words or phrases we squirt (transmit) them to the server located in the school either by an alert or email.”

The system is now in 2000 schools up and down the country protecting about two million pupils. The same system is currently being offered to the country’s police forces after a six-month pilot scheme in Surrey, this time to track the online activity of sex offenders.

Around 20 forces nationwide have expressed an interest while two, including Cumbria, have purchased the software. It is believed Northumbria is seriously considering buying into it, too.