Search engines such as Google should do more to restrict access to online pornography, a government adviser on child internet safety has said.

John Carr said increasing the number of sites automatically blocked by search engines would make it more difficult for paedophiles to get images of abuse. It comes after Mark Bridger was found guilty of the abduction and murder of five-year-old April Jones in Powys. Google said it was committed to ending access to illegal internet sites. Mr Carr, a member of the government’s Council on Child Internet Safety, said Google and other search engines should reset their default search setting to the safest option – blocking access to legal and illegal pornographic images. Those wanting to reach such material would then have to log on to the sites, which would deter many from doing so, he argued.

It has been suggested that some internet companies are reluctant to do this because it would drive users to sites unwilling to change their policy and put them at a competitive disadvantage. Children’s charity the NSPCC said April’s killing highlighted the increasing evidence of a link between disturbing and violent images of children online and serious sexual assaults. A Google spokesman said it immediately removed illegal online sites from its search index when they were brought to its attention.

During Mark Bridger’s trial, the jury was told that police had found a library of pornography on his laptop which included violent images of children. BBC political correspondent Chris Mason said Bridger’s conviction had renewed the debate about what could be done to limit access to such material online. Commons Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz told the Times newspaper that the case had shown “we need to act to remove such content from the internet”.

He called for a code of conduct to ensure internet service providers “remove material which breaches acceptable behaviour standards”. Life sentence Bridger, 47, of Ceinws, Powys, claimed he had accidentally run April over and could not recall where he had put her body. But a jury at Mold Crown Court unanimously convicted him in a case lasting four-and-a-half weeks.

The judge branded him a “pathological liar” and “a paedophile”. April went missing on 1 October 2012 near her home in Machynlleth, sparking the biggest search in UK police history. Her remains have never been found. Bridger was given a whole-life tariff prison sentence, meaning he must spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Read more:  BBC