Nothing is more important than protecting the safety and lives of our children, Premier Michael Dunkley told experts on combating child crime at yesterday’s opening of a global conference in Bermuda.

Nearly 200 delegates from 35 countries are visiting the Island for the 32nd meeting of the Interpol Specialist Group on Crimes against Children (ISGCC), which runs until Friday at the Fairmont Southampton.

The multidisciplinary working group is dedicated to preventing the abuse of children through research, education and shared intelligence.

Mr Dunkley attended the conference’s opening alongside Governor George Fergusson and Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva.

Addressing the delegates, Mr Dunkley said Bermuda was “proud” to host “discussions on a matter that all our communities care deeply about”.

“There can be nothing more important than protecting the safety and lives of our children,” he added. “If we succeed in that, we are doing much to make this a better world.

“The fight against child trafficking, the search for a global approach to missing children, the focus on understanding sexual offenders, the pitfalls within international cooperation, the need of support for sex-crime investigators — all these agenda items and more speak to the broad and complex challenge you face.

“I was particularly interested in the many cybercrime subjects scheduled for discussion. Clearly the advent of the internet has added to the complexity of preventing crimes against children, and the potential scale of those crimes.

“It seems to me that vigilance, understanding and cooperation are essential to your success and that is why this gathering is so important — sharing experience, sharing insights, reporting new developments. It is all about building relationships and joining together for a common cause.”

Mr Dunkley admitted Bermuda was “not immune” to crimes against children but police and partner agencies were dedicated to fighting this problem.

“To prevent them, we are working to expand vigilance, understanding and cooperation,” he said. “The Government has joined with community organisations, urging parents to get interested in the online activities of their children. We’re doing that because we see parents as the first line of defence against online predators.

“Through the courage of complainants and the commitment of our own Bermuda Police Service, increasing numbers of these cases have been exposed and successfully prosecuted.”

Commissioner Mr DeSilva said crimes against children tended to be local, with many “committed in the home or within the family”.

“But there are a number of areas where there is an international component, including internet crimes of distributing child abuse material, direct contact and abuse of children through social networking sites, travelling sex offenders and child trafficking.

“Criminals do not respect neat and linear country boundaries within which to operate. Nor are they opposed to the concept of international cooperation.

“The law enforcement community must expand its thinking beyond role and territory.”

Mr DeSilva highlighted how crimes against children were a “significant challenge” for law enforcement agencies worldwide and that “they require highly specialised skills and expensive training and equipment to tackle”.

He said the “combined wisdom” of the ISGCC was its strength in tackling such crimes and urged delegates to form strong bonds and share their knowledge and ideas.

He also emphasised Bermuda Police Service’s own close relationship with Interpol over the past decades and how Interpol-led initiatives such as Operation Lionfish had targeted maritime trafficking of drugs and firearms by organised crime groups across Central America and the Caribbean.

The Commissioner highlighted combined efforts regarding sexual assault and other investigations on-board Bermuda-registered cruise ships in international waters; the capture of a murder suspect in the US and his successful extradition to Bermuda, and a days-old investigation involving ATM skimmers — a first for Bermuda.

“Our investigators already have been connected through Interpol to other Caribbean law enforcement agencies who have uncovered similar activity and lines of enquiry are opening up — and those are only the cases that we can talk about openly,” Mr DeSilva said.

Governor Fergusson told the ISGCC that “Bermuda is definitely not spared the scourge of abuse against children” and that it was an honour to welcome the delegates.

“We have as much interest as any part of the world in constantly improving our child safeguarding regimes and our measures against crimes against children,” he said.

Mr Fergusson highlighted some of the many crimes against children to be covered during the conference, including the many forms of sexual exploitation, economic exploitation, neglect and violence, bullying, and systematic abuses during conflicts.

He also addressed how the scope of the group’s work had been changed by advances in technology.

“But the technology itself has created new forms of crime against children, perhaps to a greater degree than in other forms of crime,” Mr Fergusson said. “There is not just the explosion in child pornography, where the internet has given vast new opportunities for abuse, but areas like cyber-bullying, where the extent of abuse is only just becoming apparent, have produced new ways in which victims can be made miserable and in some cases have their lives ruined.

“This is something where children are particularly vulnerable and which presents a challenge to legislators as much as to law enforcers.”

Mr Fergusson also said the scope of the ISGCC’s work had been changed by “the belated awareness of the non-stereotypic nature of many of these crimes, particularly to do with sexual abuse”.

“It has been a shock to the wider public, who had thought that these offences resulted from the weakness or cruelty of certain types of individual,” he said. “It is now clear that the most surprising institutions and that every kind of person — rich or poor, old or young, stable or chaotic — can be perpetrators, or victims.”