In the UK, the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection unit (NCA-CEOP) leads efforts to counter online child sexual abuse. But they don’t work alone.
NCA-CEOP works in partnership with UK law enforcement, the third sector, and private sector organisations to help safeguard victims and prosecute offenders. BAE Systems has provided pro bono support to NCA-CEOP since 2008. Our role combines software engineering, data science and technical consulting. We focus on helping with operational tasks such as writing custom web scrapers to locate information relevant to an investigation.
BAE Systems provides CEOP with:
- Tactical support to live operations – specialist capabilities to assist investigators and analysts
- Capability development – building solutions for the long term to improve performance and or efficiency
- Technology horizon scanning – to support decision making around new capability requirements
We also use data analysis and data science across multiple investigations and cases, linking and grouping them together to identify whether suspects have posted, uploaded and/or shared child sexual abuse material – watch our short video below to find out more.
Protecting children from digital harm requires technical expertise and constant vigilance.
It’s not for the faint of heart. But it could not be more important.
Children first and always
The digital age has opened up abundant new opportunities for the next generation. But with new technology comes new threats. Tom Whiddett takes a look at the vital task of protecting children from digital harm.
Find out more
Operation Notarise & the arrest of 660 suspected child sex offenders
In 2014 BAE Systems supported CEOP on Operation Notarise. Coordinated by NCA-CEOP, this involved 45 police forces in the UK over several months.
660
Suspected child sex offenders arrested
400+
Children safeguarded
45
Police forces involved
Operation Notarise led to the arrest of 660 suspected child sex offenders and the safeguarding of over 400 children in the UK. Of the 660, 39 were Registered Sex Offenders but the majority had not previously come to law enforcement’s attention, being, amongst others, doctors, teachers, scout leaders, care workers and former police officers.
“Through our close partnership with BAE Systems, we receive a pro-bono full-time member of staff, embedded within NCA-CEOP, who provides day-to-day technical support that enhances NCA-CEOP’s operational activity." Charles Yates, Deputy Director CEOP, National Crime Agency
"Through our close partnership with BAE Systems, we receive a pro-bono full-time member of staff, embedded within NCA-CEOP, who provides day-to-day technical support that enhances NCA-CEOP’s operational activity. The technical solutions provided by BAE Systems have significantly impacted the efficiency of NCA-CEOP’s operational work.
A good example of this is Operation Notarise – an unprecedented six-month operation coordinated by the NCA – where our BAE member of staff developed bespoke automation tools that saved NCA-CEOP an estimated 10 years of effort. Without this support we could not have carried out the operation in the way we did and achieve such widespread results. Notarise led to the safeguarding of over 400 children across the UK and the arrest of over 660 suspected child sex offenders.
The work under NOTARISE has been sustained by the NCA and UK Policing, operational activity against the wider online CSA threat results in over 650 arrests, and over 750 children safeguarded each month.”
Charles Yates, Deputy Director CEOP, National Crime Agency
We are fully committed to our Strategic Partnership with NCA-CEOP and look forward to developing this role in the future, to make an even greater contribution to protecting children and young people both in the UK and abroad. Get in touch to find out more:
Louisa Bates, Account Director, National Security – UK Law Enforcement, BAE Systems Digital Intelligence
