A CLEVEDON technology company has joined forces with a Swedish business to bring to the UK a computer programme that targets those downloading child abuse images.

Efar has become the first seller in the UK of NetClean, a programme devised to totally block access to online child sexual abuse content and record where such activity takes place.

Aimed at groups, organisations, businesses, schools, and any other corporate entity, the programme can be installed on a network and will continuously monitor for suspicious activity being carried out on its computers.

If NetClean identifies abuse images on the network, an alert will be sent to a senior person in the business or organisation. The details are also logged in a file that can then be used as evidence by police.

The programme can also be used by Internet service providers to prevent content being transferred and to log details of those attempting to. In New Zealand, NetClean is used across the whole country to prevent any downloading of abuse content.

According to Efar, 95 per cent of people who download child abuse images will do so using their company’s computer system or remote devices.

Sales manager at Efar in Linden Road, Richard Anthony, said: “We have brought it to the UK because we know the value of it.

“Once people get to the level of downloading child sex abuse they will normally follow a pattern of then sharing the images.

“We can stop it before they go on to abuse children themselves.

“It is bigger than a lot of people think and it is happening at work.

“It happened at a school in Weston and we hope to show what can be done to prevent it happening again.

“Blocking this activity is not enough. We need to know who is doing it.”

So far, Efar has installed NetClean at the Bank of India and the Internet provider Virgin is also looking into the idea. Efar also works with police forces, Interpol, the Internet Watch Foundation and

* To find out more visit www.efar.co.uk and www.netclean.com