Police target chat rooms to thwart paedophiles

Police in Australia, the United States and Britain will monitor conversations on internet chat sites in a bid to prevent paedophiles from grooming victims on the web.

One of the proposals for deterring paedophiles is to flash up a symbol on computer screens to let chatroom users know they are being watched. Police could then intervene if someone is asked for his or her name and address online.

It is believed that detectives are also pressing banks to withdraw credit cards from people who pay for access to child pornography sites.