Arts sector encouraged to keep arts safe

Over the past year, a number of events – covered extensively by the nation’s media – have created a heightened sense of awareness about the need to provide greater protection for children and young people. The proliferation of internet-based child pornography rings, and the continuing investigations into individuals suspected of accessing child pornography on the Web, have raised serious concerns about the threat of sexual abuse to children posed by this medium. Meanwhile, the murders of two young schoolgirls in Soham last year, suspected to be by adults known to them, drove fear into the heart of every parent.