By Anna Louw and Shaun Smillie
Easy access to the Internet is leading to an alarming increase in the downloading of child pornography.
Two recent arrests by the East Rand Child Protection Unit are the first signs of a crackdown on perpetrators in the Ekurhuleni Metro.
In the past few days, an information technology expert has been arrested for allegedly indecently assaulting his 10-year-old daughter over a period of six years.
'We need better-quality policing and safety nets' The man, who was arrested in Alberton but who worked in Edenvale, also allegedly produced pornographic material using his daughter. He has already appeared in court and the case has been postponed for further investigation.
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In another recent case, a churchgoing father-of-two from Brakpan was arrested after a two-month investigation by the Springs company for which he worked as a manager.
"His employer had installed an Internet monitoring program to try to reduce the number of time employees spend surfing the Internet during working hours," said Captain Ivan Els of the East Rand Child Protection Unit.
The company found that the 46-year-old suspect was spending large chunks of his working time downloading child pornography.
Els and his team were alerted and, after investigating, arrested the man and seized his home and work computers. Out on bail of R2 000, he is due to appear in court for the second time later in November.
'We have been taught to give maximum priority to child pornography investigations' Detectives are expecting to make a breakthrough in another East Rand case soon, according to Els.
These arrests follow a raid on the West Rand last month in which police seized between 40 and 50 videotapes and photos featuring children as young as seven. A man was arrested and is facing charges.
Iyavar Chetty, deputy chief of the Film and Publications Board, revealed recently that there are at least a million images of child pornography on the Internet at any given time.
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