The parents of murdered children April Jones and Tia Sharp have called for more action to tackle child abuse images on the internet as the Government and technology giants agreed a new crackdown.
Paul and Coral Jones, five-year-old April’s parents, and Steven Carter, 12-year-old Tia’s father, agreed their children’s killers were spurred on by indecent images found online.
Their comments came after representatives from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, O2, EE and Three were summoned to Parliament for a meeting with Culture Secretary Maria Miller.
The four main UK internet service providers (ISPs) have agreed to provide an extra £1 million funding for the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).
David Cameron, in Northern Ireland hosting the G8 summit, hailed the “important steps” that had been taken.
He said he was happy to meet the bereaved parents to discuss the issues.
Mark Bridger, who killed April in Mid-Wales, and Stuart Hazell, murderer of Tia in south London, were both found to have accessed child and violent abuse images, and some experts argue there is a clear link between their obsessions and their actions.
Mrs Jones said she would keep pressing the Government to take tougher action.
“I just want it stopped and I think the Government should put more pressure and get it done now,” she said.
Mr Carter, Tia’s biological father, said stopping indecent images of children from being published online could have saved his daughter Tia, who was brutally murdered by Stuart Hazell.
He said: “You’re fuelling the beast and it needs to be stopped.”