News in Brief

Online grooming of children by sex predators

Senior Police Sergeant Nga Pouao has recently returned from the first “Train the Trainer” course, in Cyber Crime held on the Gold Coast, Australia

Senior Sergeant Pouao of the Police Training and Operational Service spoke to the Times about the risks of “online grooming” by sex predators, aimed at children and ways for parents to prevent it.
“We went through a lot of old cases during the pilot ‘train the trainer’ cyber safety programme in Australia, where children had been groomed online, and it was a real eye opener for all of us there. I never realised the risks of children using an unsafe website,” said Snr Sergeant Pouao.
Online grooming is the term used for when an adult makes online contact with someone under the age of 16yrs with the intention of establishing a sexual relationship.
In 2008, the internet watch foundation identified 1,536 individual child abuse domains, in 2005 child pornography was a $3 billion annual industry, in 2006 the internet watch foundation identified a 34% increase in the reports of child pornography.
In the same report, the Australian Police found that 80% of those abuse images were female and 91% of them were estimated to be less than 12 years of age.
Pouao and his team have been visiting schools around the island to raise awareness on the risks they take using social media. “We feel that there are incidents of online grooming here in the Cook Islands, but no one has come forward. Either the kids are too scared to do so, or that they don’t know that what is happening to them is wrong. So we definitely want to raise awareness amongst the kids, but the community should also be involved,” said Pouao.
A plan to also visit the outer islands to raise awareness is in motion.
Pouao says parents can easily prevent any situation of social media risks by simply switching their internet usage to “safety mode” only.

Love Patrol Season 4 to be launched
The Ministry of Health and the Wan Smolbag Theatre will next week be launching Wan Smol Bags hit TV series Love Patrol Season 4 at Staircase Restaurant. It’s confirmed that one of the main characters from the TV show will arrive into Rarotonga this weekend to officially launch the new TV series. Wan Smolbag is a non-government organisation and is based in Vanuatu, has been operating from throughout the Pacific and bases their programmes around education, environment, governance, health and youth issues, mainly domestic violence and HIV/AIDs. The launch will be held next Wednesday at 6pm at Staircase Restaurant.

Updating of Agreement between NZ and the Cook Islands
The updating of an agreement between New Zealand and the Cook islands will help ensure greater communication and collaboration during search and rescue missions. MNZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) is responsible for responding to major land, sea, air and emergency-beacon related incidents within New Zealand ’s Search and Rescue (SAR) region – a 30 million square kilometre area that includes the Cook Islands . “The signing of this agreement with the Cook Islands Government officially recognises importance of ensuring good cooperation and communication during search and rescue operations with other territories that fall within New Zealand ’s SAR region. The agreement also formalises the process for sharing information and resources to mount effective and timely rescues within that region.”

International Women's Day
The National Council of Women will next month be celebrating International Womens Day on the 8th of March, and to mark the occasion, the National Council of Woman in partnership with the CI National Youth Council and Gender Development will be linking up with members in the Outer Islands on Radio CI to share nationally what each island is doing to commemorate the occasion. Each member will identify a young woman to present their program during the live radio link up from Penryhn, Aitutaki, Manihiki, Mangaia, Rakahanga, Atiu, Pukapuka, Mauke, Mitiaro, Palmerston and possibly Nassau. It’s understood in some countries, International Womens day is a national holiday.

Red Cross celebrate new headquarters
The opening of the Cook Islands new Red Cross establishment in Tupapa officially opened its doors to public on Thursday with the likes of Red Cross Swiss Ambassador to the Cook Islands and New Zealand Marion Weichelt, Prime Minister Henry Puna, Deputy Prime Minister Tom Marsters, New Zealand High Commissioner John Carter, and Queens Representative Sir Frederick Goodwin all attending marking the event as a milestone for the humanitarian organization. Originally located in Takamoa and established in 1989 by Margaret Lauder CIRC President Nga Jessie spoke about the organizations limited beginning foundations and the plenty that followed thereafter, since the integration of the Red Cross in the Cook Islands the organization has been at the forefront of disaster preparedness, first aid, HIV/Aids awareness and humanitarian work throughout the community. Works on the organizations new headquarters began in early 2011 taking the majority of a year to complete with and an estimated budget in excess of $1million, backed with financial support from the Cook Islands government and New Zealand aid. Toward the back section of the building is located the large cyclone shelter of which New Zealand High Commissioner John Carter commented that in the event of a cyclone he would be the first through the front doors “as you have never seen a 61year old papa’a run so fast.”
Swiss Ambassador Marion Weichelt also spoke of the hospitality of the Cook Islands and of 179th Member of the Movement and CIRC Secretary General Nikki Rattle, who began work with CIRC in 1993, and presented her with a cheque.
Tua Nicholas, the landowner of the section was the first to be acknowledged in the completion of the building as she was selected to unveil the entrance plaque, followed by CIRC President Nga Jessie opening the entrance doors.
After the formalities all guests who attended were invited into the cyclone shelter for entertainment by local dancers, and Bishop Tutai Pere blessed the shelter sprinkling the guest and building with holy water which was then followed by a traditional umu.

Te Mire Atu Competition 2012
Initiated by the Ministry of Cultural Development the annual Te Mire Atu Composers competition took place on Thursday evening at the National Auditorium. This year’s Te Mire Ate competition had 12 hopeful entrants of which they composed an original track coupled with lyrics and performed either by themselves or designated to someone to perform on their behalf. Sitting on the judges panel were 5 venerable judges amongst them included Staircase’s Mann Short and Cook Islands entertainer Kathy Brown.
The general undertone of this year’s songs that were composed featured strong Christian themes, love and relationships and even tackled some of the larger issues of youth suicide prevalent within the community.
With strong competition from last year’s winner Poti Maeva and crowd raising performance from Dough Tetupuariki with his song ‘Akaruke au ia Rarotonga’ it was Kathy Georges composition ‘To Taua Koanga’ performed by her brother Andrew George that won the title of 2012 Composer walking away with a cash prize of $2,000. Following in second place with a cash prize of $1,500 Tuaine Unia with his composition ‘E Tama-Ariki’.

CISNOC needs to raise funds for next Commonwealth Games team
A special meeting for the CISNOC Sports Codes was held on Thursday at CISNOC headquarters.
Senior Vice President, George Paniani told the Times later on Thursday, “There were two major issues discussed in the meeting between CISNOC members, the update of CISNOC finances and the constitutional review.”
At the meeting CISNOC members reviewed an update of their finances, which contained a supplementary budget which government had conveniently supplied, to support CISNOC as well has their proposed budget starting July this year and working into the middle of 2013 in line with government’s financial year.
Many questions were raised during the meeting said Paniani, and also concerning the Cook Island team travelling to Glasgow, UK, for the next Commonwealth games.
“The issue we looked at concerning the team was again of finances for all the members, which will be reimbursed,” said Paniani who also stated that there will be a shortfall in funds which CISNOC will have to meet. CISNOC will need to raise between $26,000 to $30,000 dollars to balance the Games budget.
As regards the review of CISNOC’s constitution, Paniani said a committee has been working on this and they have put together the required amendments needed for the constitution.
These will now be circulated to the Sporting Codes for their input, which will then be taken to the executive board where it will be further discussed.

Headlines : Times 290 02 March 2009
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