A/HRC/12/23 page 16 than 15 million photos and videos and helped identify more than 1,600 children. For example, a series of images depicting one girl led to the opening of more than 13,000 investigations in the United States alone. 81. In the United Kingdom the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has likewise created an image bank which has helped rescue 18 children. National information and coordination centres, such as Australia’s and Canada’s National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre (NCECC), serve as clearing houses for information relating to sexual exploitation of children on the Internet and respond to international requests to undertake investigations within the country. Italy has established a similar mechanism, the Monitoring Centre to Combat Paedophilia and Child Pornography. 82. Image banks alone are not enough. Specialized analysis is also required; expertise and know-how in the area of identification of victims of sexual abuse are essential and crucial factors in effectively tackling this problem. In most countries police officers are regularly trained in the skills needed for identifying and interviewing child victims. This training is provided by groups experienced in the areas of cybercrime and assistance to child victims. Mechanisms that can contribute multidisciplinary skills, including expertise in victim identification techniques, support the work of the police: NCMEC in the United States, NCECC in Canada, the CEOP Centre in the United Kingdom and the National Child Exploitation Centre (NCECC) in Australia. 83. While the total number of identified victims is not known, statistics on sexual predators arrested and/or convicted are more readily available. For example, in the United States, 3,884 individuals were convicted in 2007-2008; as of 31 March 2009, 12,085 sexual predators had been arrested, 6,237 of them deported from the United States. In Japan there were 676 arrests in 2008; in 2005 police in Australia made 191 arrests; in Italy 182 individuals were convicted in 2005. 2. Inadequate protection of child victims 84. Child pornography victims, once identified, receive more or less comprehensive care, depending on the country. Integrated programmes providing support and follow-up services to child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation on the Internet (and to their families), as provided for in the Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crimes, are still relatively rare. It has become apparent that the professionals often work in isolation and do not always communicate effectively with one another or with the children and their families, resulting in uncoordinated support that does not offer protection appropriate to the child’s age, level of maturity or individual needs in order to ensure that involvement in the criminal justice process inflicts no additional hardship or trauma. 85. In order to provide appropriate assistance and protection based on the needs of the child, some States have launched a number of initiatives: in the United States, 900 Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), 600 of them accredited by the National Children’s Alliance (NCA), have child- and family-friendly centres where child victims receive comprehensive and multidisciplinary care until they are completely stabilized or recovered; in Ontario (Canada),