Hon Dr Richard Worth
Minister of Internal Affairs
28 May 2009
More money to fight child abuse image trade
The campaign against the child pornography trade has received a $2.4 million boost in Budget 2009, Internal Affairs
Minister Richard Worth says.
The extra funding will help the department manage a significant increase in the demand-driven volume of censorship
investigations, prosecutions and defended hearings involving distribution or possession of child sexual abuse images, Dr
Worth said.
“This additional funding, over four years, will ensure that the Department of Internal Affairs’ censorship inspectors
continue to play a major role in the global and domestic detection of offenders who collect, distribute and make
pictures of children being sexually abused.”
The Censorship Compliance Unit is recognised internationally for the intelligence it supplied and its forensic work in
combating child sex abuse through the Internet. In the 13 years since the team was set up, it has developed its own
computer software and capability in detecting offending by New Zealanders.
“The additional funding will also ensure the team can respond quickly and effectively to international operations,
particularly in trying to identify and save the young victims being used by pornographers,” Dr Worth says.
“We must play our part in the international fight against this trade. This injection will ensure that those who traffic
in these images will be caught.”
The additional funding will boost the unit’s budget for 2009/10 by more than 25 per cent from its current budget of $2.1
million a year.
ENDS