CHILD pornography is being spread by paedophiles on the Internet, a Dublin conference on child welfare has been told. The conference is being organised by Focus on Children and Barnardos.
Mr Sean Lawless, director of Focus on Children, told delegates at the European Forum for Child Welfare that illegal pornographic pictures of adults abusing children were being downloaded through the Internet. They were then colour printed and sold in pubs and on the streets of Dublin and Belfast, he said.
Without regulation, Mr Lawless warned, the Internet could "act as a shop window for criminals to access children for abuse." Pornographic material could become available by keying in a few simple words on a home computer, he pointed out.