GSC0026

Written Evidence submitted by The UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC)

1. About the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC)

1.1   The UK Safer Internet Centre is a partnership of three leading charities – Childnet International, the SWGfL and the Internet Watch Foundation - with a shared mission to make the internet a better place for children and young people.

1.2   The centre has three main functions:

1.2.1         Awareness Centre: to provide advice and support to children and young people, parents and carers, schools, and the children's workforce and to coordinate Safer Internet Day across UK.

1.2.2         Helpline: to provide support to professionals working with children and young people with online safety issues.

1.2.3         Hotline: an anonymous and safe place to report and remove criminal online content online child sexual abuse imagery and videos, wherever they are found in the world.

1.3   The UKSIC is vital in supporting the UK Government’s ambition to make the UK the safest place in the world to go online. For instance, since the hotline was established in 1996, the amount of child sexual abuse material hosted in the UK has reduced from 18% to under 0.1%. We have also been a critical part of the COVID-19 response, dealing with dramatically increased reports to the hotline and helplines, and continuing to provide vital digital education to children when they are spending more time online than ever before.

1.4   For more information visit www.saferinternet.org.uk and the websites of the partners: Childnet (www.childnet.com), Internet Watch Foundation (www.iwf.org.uk) and SWGfL (www.swgfl.org.uk.)

1.5   The partnership was appointed by the European Commission as the Safer Internet Centre for the UK in January 2011 and is one of the 31 Safer Internet Centres of the Insafe[1] and INHOPE[2] network. We are important members of the UK Council for Internet Safety[3], chair and convene the Early Warning Working Group and provide the Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Media.[4]

2. Recommendations

2.1   That the Government focuses on both the long term and perhaps permanent changes made to society by the COVID-19 pandemic and appropriately funds and supports those charities responding to that long term change at least in the short to medium term.

2.2   That the Government furthers it support and investment in Online Safety initiatives as we all spend more time online to prevent children falling victim to crimes of online harassment, sexual exploitation, and abuse.

2.3   That the Government makes good its commitment to fund the activities of the UK Safer Internet Centre and replaces the funding it receives from the EU and that spending decisions because of COVID-19 are not used as an excuse to not fund such vital public protection activities.

3. Introduction

3.1   We appreciate the Government’s ambition to ‘build back better’ from the pandemic and share the UK Government’s ambition to make the UK the safest place in the world to go online.

3.2   The Government deserves praise for establishing such a large package of financial support for frontline charities during the COVID-19 crisis, however, many charities had to actively lobby for the funding and support from the Government for that support to be forthcoming.

3.3   Whilst two of the charities that make up the UK Safer Internet Centre have received some form of support from the Government COVID-19 funding, many of the challenges we face as a sector are ahead of us and whilst the immediate support was welcome, we remain concerned about what impact this may have on future funding decisions by DCMS.

3.4   Childnet International received just over £90,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund, which allowed them to create new content for the website to respond to young people’s needs during COVID-19, including research, topics pages, and consultation with young people about what is going in in their lives. Web traffic went up by three times the normal level during lockdown, reaching more young people and parents than ever before.

3.5   SWGfL and Internet Matters received £220,000 pounds from the Government’s Covid support scheme which paid for the vitally important and popular “So you got naked online resource” to be made much user friendly for those with Special Educational Needs.

3.6   Against the backdrop of this pandemic, we have all seen both children and those who seek to exploit them spending increased amounts of time online. This has increased the threat to children and the National Crime Agency estimates that this increased threat will continue at least in the short to medium term.

3.7   This funding has been very much focused on the short-term impacts of COVID-19 on charities, but it is our belief that the Government must also support those charities who are likely to receive sustained pressure for their services in the medium to longer term, particularly where they carry out such important public functions that encourage the reporting of crimes or protect children.

3.8   As mentioned below, the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the conditions for increased online harm for children. We have seen dramatic surges in the number of people trying to access child sexual abuse material over the internet, children being groomed online, rises in the number of revenge pornography and an increased demand for all services that the UKSIC provides. This is both a worrying problem in the short-term and has long-term implications for child safety and offender behaviour.

3.9   However, despite the number of children very vulnerable to online harm and abuse during the pandemic, the UKSIC was not awarded any funding to support its core functions and activities out of the £750 million financial support for frontline charities as this was not required at the time because we did not face an immediate financial viability challenge.

3.10                        The three charities that make up the Centre have been essential public services during the pandemic, remaining open throughout and continuing to provide critical frontline programmes, resources and services that are enabling young people to avoid being victims of online abuse and recover better from COVID-19.

4. Impact of COVID-19 on Online Harms.

4.1   In March 2020, many child protection organisations and law enforcement agencies warned that the COVID-19 lockdown would make more children vulnerable to online harm and abuse, particularly given the increasing amount of time adults and children would be spending on the internet. The IWF were one of the first organisations to warn of an increased threat to children when their CEO, Susie Hargreaves, wrote in The Times last April; “There is a fire burning in the bedrooms of our nation’s children.”[5]She was referring to what we believed would be a rise in self-generated indecent imagery during the pandemic.

4.2   The UKSIC has found this to be the case. For example, in 2020, the IWF hotline processed 299,000 reports of suspected child sexual abuse material (up 15% from 2019) and removed 153,350 of these webpages because they did contain images or videos of children being sexually abused (an increase of 16% from 2019.) Each report can contain between one and thousands of individual images and videos.

4.3   There are many people in the UK attempting to access child sexual abuse material or attempting to contact children online with the intention of taking advantage of them. In 2020, the National Crime Agency conducted an assessment that showed there are at least 300,000 people in the UK who pose a sexual threat to children[6] and, at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), evidence from law enforcement stated that there are at least 100,000 people[7] in the UK accessing indecent images at any one time.

4.4   Data provided to the IWF by three companies which use the IWF’s URL list shows that in the UK alone, there were more than 8.8 million attempts[8] to access known CSAM in just one month at the start of lockdown.

4.5   The Centre has seen a worrying increase in the number of, often very young, children who are being groomed over the internet into producing “self-generated” indecent images. The hotline saw a 77% increase[9] in this type of content from 2019 to 2020, and the largest group affected are 11-13-year-old girls. Parents are often unaware of what their child is doing online in their own bedroom. We believe that both removing illegal images and providing digital education are more important than ever before, and that the UKSIC has over 20 years expertise in both of these areas.

4.6   We also found that the Revenge Porn Helpline operated by SWGfL saw a doubling in its reports from February to November 2020.[10]

4.7   The Revenge Porn Helpline prior to the pandemic in March 2020, was receiving around 180 reports per month. During the last financial year, thanks to a further grant from the Home Office meaning that the helpline received a further £53,000 on top of the £80,000 it currently receives from the Home Office, by the middle of the year it had processed more reports of revenge pornography in six months than it had done in the entirety of the year before.

4.8   However, there is currently no commitment from the Government to replace either the UKSIC funding, or the increased funding of the Revenge Porn Helpline to deal with this surge in cases and of course recently, the national media has been full of reports about how there is an increased threat of violence towards women and girls.

4.9   We believe that internet safety must be a high priority for the Government in considering the ongoing COVID-19 response. Whilst children are now going back to school and lockdown restrictions are beginning to ease, it is likely that the offender patterns and behaviours created during 2020 may continue. Children who have been more vulnerable to abuse during the pandemic are likely to still be vulnerable e.g., still in contact with their abuser, or the potential for manipulation by threats to share sexual images. It is likely that there are both damaging short- and long-term consequences to the online trends that we have seen during the COVID-19 crisis. The Safeguarding Minister, Rt. Hon. Victoria Atkins MP, recently said in a speech to the All-Party Parliamentary Group meeting on Social Media “the National Crime Agency estimates that the threat to children will continue at least in the medium term.

4.10                        The isolation that many people experienced during 2020 will have continued impacts, including for children who were isolated from state safeguarding support in schools. The number of referrals from professionals has dropped in the pandemic because they have not been able to work directly with school children in schools. Charities like Childnet have been unable to generate as much income due to the pandemic so they have also not been able to do as much valuable work in schools. It is essential for teachers and other professionals to be equipped to identify which children need intervention and support, for instance through the UKSIC educational resources and Professionals Online Safety Helpline.

5. Impact of Brexit on UKSIC Funding.

5.1   The UKSIC has an essential role in making the UK the safest place to be online and has contributed significantly to the short-term COVID-19 response, however, the Centre needs continued funding for these resources and projects to continue at their current rate of growth into the future and continuing to make a vital contribution to making the UK the safest place in the world to go online.

5.2   The UKSIC was originally appointed by the European Commission as one of the 32 Safer Internet Centre of the Insafe and INHOPE networks in Europe. The UKSIC was already receives 50% of its funding from alternative sources and in the best decade has successfully levied over £10m to support its activities. It requires a commitment from the Government to replace the £1.3m it currently receives annually from the EU, if it is to continue to provide its current level of activities.

5.3   The current EU funding provides the centre with the stability and certainty to generate its revenue raising activities and despite a concerted campaign supported by over 33 MPs and Peers[11], 25 leaders[12] from the Online Safety Sector and numerous commitments[13][14] from the Government to maintain the funding of the Centre, no firm decisions has been made on if the UK Government will fill this gap in EU funding.

5.4   This means at the time the Government is bringing forward its “world leading” Online Safety Bill and the services the Centre provides are busier than they have ever been due to the impact of Covid-19, children, victims of child sexual abuse and victims of revenge pornography face a decline in support for their reports and a decline in the preventative activities of that prevent them from happening in the first place. It also places at risk the partnership between the three charities that share so much information about how these risks manifest online and vital intelligence which will be of use to the new regulator, Ofcom.

5.5   The UK Safer Internet Centre’s notable achievements in 2020/21 include:

5.5.1         Removing 153,350 reports of child sexual abuse from the internet (each report can contain between one and thousands of individual images.) This was 16% more than 2019.

5.5.2         UK Safer Internet Day in February 2021 reached 51% of children and 38% of their parents and carers. Over 2,100 organisations across the UK delivered activities for the day.

5.5.3         Education packs were downloaded over 1.5 million times.

5.5.4         We removed 99,000 images related to Revenge Pornography.

5.6   The UKSIC plays a significant role in educating children, both also putting young people at the centre of this response. The Centre runs a Digital Leaders programme, which empowers young people to educate and have open conversations with their peers at school. It is essential to invest in resources like this when considering the long-term response to online harms – the RSE curriculum must provide safe spaces for children to discuss healthy relationships in a digital world.

5.7   The UKSIC also provides information and help to young people that are relevant to their lived experiences, for example the educational resource So you got naked online, a resource that helps and advises young people who might find themselves in a situation where they (or a friend) have put a sexting image or video online and have lost control over that content and who it’s being shared with. This resource has been referred to as best in class. SWGfL was given increased COVID-19 funding from the Government for this resource and Internet Matters received funding to convert it into a resource suitable for a SEN audience.

5.8   Childnet International’s Project deSHAME is an example of best practice, aiming to increase reporting of online sexual harassment among minors and improve multi-sector cooperation in preventing and responding to this behaviour.

5.9   The UK Safer Internet Centre needs to secure £1.3 million pounds of funding by October 2021 for the Centre’s activities to continue at the same pace of growth and expansion into 2022.

5.10                        The consequences of the Centre not securing this funding will:

5.10.1      Mean less analysts to fight online child sexual abuse in the UK, which could potentially see a growth in the amount of material hosted here, a reduction in speed of removal or services offered to the internet industry that are deployed globally. This means the abuse of victims of CSAM remaining live for longer or potentially not being removed at all.

5.10.2      Activities around Safer Internet Day 2022, the critical touchpoint in child online safety, needs early financial commitment to ensure its continued significant reach and effectiveness. The Centre is already incurring costs related to the delivery of Safer Internet Day 2022.

5.10.3      Impact those victims facing online harmful content. Sadly, the UK has many examples of individuals taking their own lives in the face of online harmful content. In 2020, 4% of those using UK Safer Internet Centre ReportHarmfulContent platform expressed suicidal ideation, i.e., in its first full year of operation, the ReportHarmfulContent platform potentially saved 25 lives.

5.11                        We would like to continue with our existing projects, but also develop and innovate to meet some of the challenges post-COVID-19. For example, we are currently working to develop a Chatbot that will intervene automatically when a user is trying to access online child sexual abuse material.

5.12                        We believe that investing in these resources and programmes will mean that the UK saves money in the long-term. In 2014 research showed that the estimated cost of child sexual abuse to the UK Economy was around £3 billion per year. The research report estimated that the cost to the economy because of lost labour productivity was £2.7 billion per annum, and health care resulting from emotional and health issues (such as depression or behavioural problems) could cost as much as £182 million.[15]

6. Conclusion

6.1   The UKSIC is an expert in bringing together industry experts, charities, Government, and young people. It is essential to adopt a holistic approach to tackle the online harms exacerbated by COVID-19 and the UKSIC is in the unique position to be able to provide key educational resources, but also technical expertise through helplines and the removal of illegal images.

6.2   It is vitally important that the Government considers the long-term and perhaps permanent changes that the pandemic has caused as the world in which we live perhaps changes irreversibly in the medium to long-term. The UK Safer Internet Centre believes we play a vitally important public function and at the moment the Government has given no financial commitment to continuing our work which has been impacted by both the pandemic in terms of increased demand and the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

April 2021

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