Children and the Internet Inquiry
Risks and benefits
1. What risks and benefits does increased internet usage present to children, with particular regard to:
i. Social development and wellbeing
ii. Neurological, cognitive and emotional development,
iii. Data security.
1. The Government remains committed to improving the safety of children online.
2. There is no doubt that the internet plays an important part in the lives of children and young people. Many are sophisticated in the way they use apps and websites, tailoring their communication for different audiences, and using a range of devices including smartphones, tablets, and games consoles.
3. The internet has brought fantastic opportunities for children and young people as they grow. It lets them express their creativity, research a wide range of subjects, participate in dialogue and debate, and learn about different cultures and places around the world. It helps improve their educational attainment and enrich their lives, helping them reach their potential, encourage their participation, and learn about social responsibility. Their exposure to diverse views and people can also help them develop their own identity by enabling them to explore relationships, find peer groups online, share their problems and seek support services and information. This can be of particular benefit for vulnerable and isolated children and young people.
4. However, we know that children and young people can feel unable to switch off from their online lives, which can be a source of stress. The Department of Health, with NHS Choices, has worked to address this by providing information on mental health so that young people can understand more about issues, symptoms and where to find support: http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/youth-mental-health/pages/Youth-mental-health-help.aspx
5. In addition, as a response to the recommendation of the Health Select Committee on Children’s Mental Health on the impact of the online world on children and young people, the Department of Health has also created a specific training package in partnership with MindEd and Xenzone. MindEd is a free e-learning platform launched in March 2014, aimed at improving the knowledge of children and young people’s mental health among professionals who work with children. The resources were developed by a consortium of expert organisations, led by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The programme was developed after a £3 million investment by the Department of Health, and its ongoing maintenance is funded by Health Education England. It is designed to help professionals understand the digital world and online risk better, with input from young people and professionals, and is being well received: https://www.minded.org.uk/course/view.php?id=403
6. The Department of Health has also commissioned an update of the 2004 prevalence survey in partnership with NatCen Social Research and the Office of National Statistics. It will include information on issues like cyberbullying and its impact. In addition, the Department of Health is commissioning a suite of evidence-based digital tools with NHS England, expected to be available through NHS Choices in spring 2017.
7. In order to future-proof our children's digital skills, the Government has introduced the new computer science curriculum, which includes topics such as online safety and security, providing the computational thinking skills which will enable young people to adapt to emerging technologies.
8. The digital transformation of the economy is changing the shape of the labour market and the types of skills needed by businesses, and children will need to gain confidence to navigate this new world. Digital skills, including the safe and effective use of the internet, are therefore increasingly important to our children's future employability and prospects.
9. Like all forms of public communication, internet usage can bring risks and the Government is aware of parental concerns about content and inappropriate or upsetting behaviour on online services.
10. Getting the most out of what the internet has to offer also means learning to use it responsibly at each developmental stage of childhood. Children will have to be supported in this so that they have adequate opportunities to learn how to communicate safely online, the relevance of their online reputation and that inappropriate behaviour online is not acceptable. The Government is very clear that alongside industry, parents, the education community and specialist charities, we must all work together to ensure that children are supported in their journey into adulthood.
2. Which platforms and sites are most popular among children and how do young people use them? Many of the online services used by children are not specifically designed for children. What problems does this present?
11. While not all social media and interactive services (e.g. social networks, messaging, Q&A sites, interactive games, cloud services or ephemeral messaging services) may be designed with children in mind, the Government expects online industries to ensure that they have relevant safeguards and processes in place, including access restrictions, for children and young people who use such services.
12. In particular, the Government expects social media and interactive services to have robust processes in place to address inappropriate and abusive content on their sites. This includes having clear reporting channels, acting promptly to assess reports, and removing content that does not comply with their acceptable use policies or terms and conditions. The internet can also help signpost vulnerable users to useful sources of information and support.
13. However, the Government understands the need for services specifically for children, so asked Ofcom, in its role as Chair of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS)[1] Social Media Working Group, to encourage businesses to think about ‘safety by design’ to help make their platforms safer for children and young people under the age of 18.
14. The Social Media Working Group has therefore developed a practical guide for providers of social media and interactive services, working with major platforms (including Twitter, Facebook, Google, Ask.FM, MindCandy and Microsoft), charities, and law enforcement agencies. The guide includes examples of good practice from leading technology companies, and advice from NGOs and other online child safety experts. UKCCIS members are currently working with other partners to ensure this guidance influences policy and practice by online service providers both within and outside the UK.
15. The Government has also published a guide for parents and carers of children using social media. It includes practical tips about the use of safety and privacy features on apps and platforms, as well as conversation prompts to help families begin talking about online safety. It also contains pointers to further advice and support. The guide is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/490001/Social_Media_Guidance_UKCCIS_Final_18122015.pdf.pdf
16. The UKCCIS guide for social media and interactive services and the UKCCIS parents’ guide can be accessed at: www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-council-for-child-internet-safety-ukccis
3. What are the technical challenges for introducing greater controls on internet usage by children?
17. Ultimately, industry is best placed to facilitate the best technical tools for their services and to stay apace with the challenges brought by rapid technological progress. Industry must also remain alive to children’s media consumption patterns and behaviour towards technology when developing any technical tools - how and where children use the Internet is as important as what type of apps and devices might appeal to them.
18. Family-friendly filters are a key tool in keeping our children safe online. The Government has encouraged Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide parents with the ability to easily filter content. The four major ISPs (BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media together constitute an estimated 90% of the UK’s broadband market) provide an unavoidable choice on whether to switch on family friendly network level filters to all their customers. Government is also working with the Internet Service Providers Trade Association (ISPA) to see what more smaller providers can do and many - KCom, Plusnet, and Claranet Soho - offer free of charge filters to customers. Should families choose an ISP that does not filter, there are plenty of free filtering solutions on offer.
19. All the ISPs’ family-friendly filters allow tailoring and choice based on the age of children in the family. The categories of content that are filtered differs by provider, but typically websites allowing access to pornography, violence, suicide, self-harm and sites that require the user to be over 18, will be filtered. The Government believes the filtering solutions on offer deliver the best of both worlds; engaging parents to think about online safety but applying filters where parents don’t engage.
20. We know that technology tools are not a silver bullet, and that savvy children may be able to circumvent them. Therefore education and awareness of internet safety remains of fundamental importance to help children and young people to think critically about what they do online, what information they share, and how they interact with others. This way, they will be able to make the most of their experiences and know to speak to an adult for guidance or help.
21. With this in mind, in 2013, the former Prime Minister David Cameron asked ISPs and others to focus their skills on parental awareness. BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, supported by education, charity, industry and law enforcement, launched a large-scale awareness campaign in Spring 2014, ‘Internet Matters’, the aim of which is to help parents make informed and confident choices about online safety.
4. What are the potential future harms and benefits to children from emerging technology, such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things?
22. The Government has created a mechanism through UKCCIS to better understand the future harms and benefits to children and young people from emerging technology by setting up a new Technical Working Group to bring together experts to explore and understand relevant technological developments that relate to child internet safety. UKCCIS is co-Chaired by Edward Timpson MP, Minister of State for Vulnerable Children and Families (Department for Education), Sarah Newton MP, Minister for Vulnerability, Safeguarding and Countering Extremism (Home Office), and Baroness Joanna Shields, Minister for internet Safety and Security (Department for Media Culture and Sport).
23. This Technical Working Group will aim to identify both harms and benefits and will draw on expertise from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), ISPs, technology companies, experts on age verification, and charities working with children and young people. The main aim of this Working Group will be to keep UKCCIS Ministers and the Government informed of emerging technology, such as the Internet of Things, and how this may impact adversely on children and young people.
24. UKCCIS also has an Evidence Working Group, chaired by Professor Julia Davidson, which informs its Executive Board of potential future harms and benefits to children. It is a unique forum that brings together leading experts at the forefront of research on online child safety and child sexual abuse. It provides UKCCIS with a ‘timely, critical and rigorous account of relevant national and international research’ on child internet safety and online child abuse. For example, on children’s use of technology (including gaming); parental awareness and supervision; vulnerable children and young people; and research informed practice. It also provides an annual overview of child internet safety based upon research indicators.
25. The terms of reference for all UKCCIS working groups are available online - https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-council-for-child-internet-safety-ukccis#working-groups
Education
5. What roles can schools play in educating and supporting children in relation to the internet? What guidance is provided about the internet to schools and teachers? Is guidance consistently adopted and are there any gaps?
26. The introduction of e-safety content in key stages 1 and 2 (ages 5-11 years) reflects the fact that younger children are increasingly accessing the internet, and is intended to inform pupils of good practice in staying safe online from an early age. Since September 2014, children in primary schools are taught how to use technology safely and respectfully, how to keep personal information private, recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour and where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.
27. In secondary schools, pupils are taught about responsible, respectful and secure use of technology, as well as age-appropriate ways of reporting any concerns they may have about what they see or encounter online. There is progression in the content across the key stages to reflect the different and escalating risks that young people face as they get older (initially relating to online content, then to the conduct of and contact with others). This content was developed with input from e-safety experts including Childnet, NSPCC and the UK Safer Internet Centre.
28. Teachers in all schools are being supported by the Department for Education to deliver all aspects of the new curriculum, including e-safety. This support has included:
● over £5 million to establish and grow the Network of Teaching Excellence in Computer Science, building a national network of over 400 ‘Master Teachers’ whom schools can commission to provide training for their teachers;
● £1 million for Computing at School to meet the needs of primary schools teachers who lacked the specialist computer science subject knowledge required to teach the new curriculum; and
● a £500,000 competitive match-funded scheme that has supported innovative approaches to promoting excellent computing teaching, levering in additional investment and engagement from business, such as Microsoft, Google and Raspberry Pi.
29. In addition, there are a wide range of free and independent sources of advice available for schools. This includes advice from the Safer Internet Centre, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP), NSPCC, Childnet International and Internet Matters, among others.
30. Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is the statutory guidance to which all schools and colleges must have regard when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The guidance sets out that all school staff have a responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children can learn. All staff should escalate safeguarding concerns about children to the school’s designated safeguarding lead and or children’s social care. All school staff should receive safeguarding training during their induction and should have regular updated safeguarding training.
31. Newly revised KCSIE guidance came into force on 5 September 2016 for all schools in England and includes for the first time a section covering online safety in schools. This sets out the importance of protecting children from harmful and inappropriate content. The guidance states that schools should ensure appropriate filters and monitoring systems are in place. Additional information to support schools in keeping their children safe online has also been provided. This includes expert advice from the UK Safer Internet Centre as to what appropriate filters and monitoring might look like. The KCSIE guidance can be found online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2
32. All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy with measures to tackle all forms of bullying among pupils. Schools are free to develop their own anti-bullying strategies but they are held clearly to account for their effectiveness through Ofsted. To support schools to tackle bullying, including cyberbullying, the Department for Education has produced a factsheet for schools which outlines their responsibilities to support children who are bullied and advice to help teachers protect themselves against cyberbullying, and what to do if it happens.
33. The UKCCIS Education Group (of which the Department of Education is a member) has recently produced advice for schools and colleges on responding to incidents of ‘sexting.’ The advice aims to support them in tackling the range of issues which these incidents present including responding to disclosures, handling devices and imagery, risk assessing situations and involving other agencies. It explains how schools can best support the children involved and includes case studies for staff training purposes and links to further sources of support and advice. The advice also contains information about preventative education, working with parents and reporting imagery to providers. The recently revised KCSIE includes a link to the advice,which is also available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-council-for-child- internet-safety- ukccis
34. The Government has also changed legislation to strengthen teachers' powers to enforce discipline and promote good behaviour in schools. Teachers can search pupils for banned items, issue same day detentions and use reasonable force when necessary. Search powers included in the Education Act 2011 have given teachers stronger powers to tackle cyberbullying (via text message or the internet) by providing that when an electronic device, such as a mobile phone, has been seized, a teacher who has been formally authorised by the head teacher can examine data or files, and delete these, where there is good reason to do so.
35. In addition, the Government has moved the emphasis from schools ‘considering’ how children are taught about safeguarding, including online safety to ‘ensuring’ children are taught about safeguarding, including online. We would expect this to be achieved through teaching and learning opportunities as part of providing a broad and balanced curriculum. This may include covering relevant issues via personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE).
36. The Government Equalities Office (GEO), has funded the development of resources to educate young people about staying safe online. In 2015-16, the Government invested almost £500,000 in the UK Safer Internet Centre to provide advice on how to keep children safe, and deliver the following resources to be published shortly:
● updated cyberbullying guidance for schools to help them understand, prevent and respond to cyberbullying, including sexting; sharing good practice developed in schools;
● a PSHE toolkit, to help schools deliver sessions about cyberbullying, peer pressure and sexting;
● support to professionals through a Professionals Online Safety Helpline; and
● a series of Online Safety Briefings for professionals working with children.
37. Recently, the Department for Education and GEO announced funding for ten innovative projects to support schools to address bullying, including online bullying - totalling £4.4 million.
38. One of these initiatives will use the online reporting platform, Tootoot at its core. Tootoot will provide 24 hour support to young people who are victims of all forms of bullying or online abuse. Young people can screenshot abusive messages or even take photographs of bullies in action then send them via the app. These reports will then be read by staff at the child’s school, but no one else. This significant increase in funding will reach more schools and teachers across the country to prevent and respond to all forms of bullying and build inclusive school environments.
39. The Government wants all young people to develop healthy, respectful relationships. GEO and the Home Office jointly funded £3.85 million to launch the second phase of the This is Abuse campaign, called ‘Disrespect NoBody,’ in February 2016. The campaign encourages young people to rethink their understanding of abuse within relationships, which includes issues like sexting.
40. To support the campaign, the Government has worked with the PSHE Association to produce a new resource for teachers, support workers and other professionals working with young people. The guide uses the new campaign adverts to help professionals facilitate discussions with teenagers on what constitutes abuse in all types of relationships – including relationships involving lesbian, gay, bi and transgender (LGB&T) young people. The discussion guide is available online - www.pshe-association.org.uk/curriculum-and-resources/resources/disrespect-nobody-discussion-guide
41. The Government has also taken steps to ensure children are safe from terrorist and extremist material when accessing the internet in school.
42. The Prevent Duty Guidance for England and Wales and the Prevent Duty Guidance for Scotland (www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance) makes clear that specified authorities, in complying with the duty, ensure that publicly owned venues and resources do not provide a platform for extremists and are not used to disseminate extremist views. This includes considering whether IT equipment available to the general public should use filtering solutions that limit access to terrorist and extremist material.
43. The duty specifically makes clear that schools will be expected to ensure children are safe from terrorist and extremist material when accessing the internet in school, including by establishing appropriate levels of filtering to limit access to terrorist and extremist material. In addition to this, the Department for Education consultation (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/keeping-children-safe-in-education-proposed-changes), launched in December 2015, proposes changes to keeping children safe which obligate schools to ensure appropriate filtering and monitoring systems are in place.[2]
44. As part of meeting the requirement in the Prevent Duty Guidance, schools will want to check with their filtering company if their filtering product includes the police assessed list of unlawful terrorist content, (produced by the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) on behalf of the Home Office).[3]
45. All these aspects of schools’ duties to safeguard children and young people are covered in Ofsted’s school inspection framework and we consider that schools take them seriously.
46. The Counter Extremism Strategy, published in 2015, proposed to empower those who wish to challenge extremists online, including the proposal to run a programme nationally to make young people more resilient to the risk of radicalisation online and to provide schools and teachers with more support to address the risk posed by online radicalisation. The Home Office have been working with a number of local projects looking at this issue and cataloguing best practice. They have also been working with UKCCIS on their wider Digital Resilience project.
6. Who currently informs parents of risks? What is the role for commercial organisations to teach e-safety to parents? How could parents be better informed about risks?
47. Helping parents and carers to protect their children from inappropriate and harmful content online is a priority for this Government. Some parents are more knowledgeable than others, and we recognise the need to raise awareness of online child safety issues and how they can be addressed, but very few adults these days are not using the internet as part of their daily lives.
48. Following a request from Government, the leading four ISPs (Virgin, Sky, BT and TalkTalk) launched Internet Matters (www.internetmatters.org) to support parents to make informed and confident choices about online safety. Internet Matters develops media campaigns, supported by a central website, that reach out to millions of parents to highlight relevant issues, and to encourage them to get more involved in their children’s digital lives. The site contains links and information about keeping pre-schoolers, young children, pre-teens and teens safe online. Internet Matters continues to work with industry, in particular, the BBC, Google, Barclays, Disney, EY and Twitter have all made significant contributions to its work over the last year.
49. As noted above, the Government has encouraged ISPs to enable parents to easily filter content by giving them an unavoidable choice to switch family friendly network level filters on. We believe that this will help empower parents, driving them to expect more from their ISP.
50. The Government has also worked to ensure content is filtered in public places where children are likely to be. Six major providers (BT, O2, Virgin Media, Sky, Nomad and Arqiva), who are estimated to cover around 90% of the market, committed to provide family-friendly public Wi-Fi. A Friendly Wi-Fi Logo was launched by the RDI (UK) Holdings in July 2014, to help parents identify the safest places to browse the internet. The logo gives parents the assurance that a particular business, retailer, or public space is filtering to an agreed and clearly communicated minimum (illegal child abuse content, and also pornography). This is now in place in many stores in the UK, including Tesco, Starbucks and IKEA.
51. We also need to help parents to have important conversations with children, and to spot warning signs early. The National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Command has developed a comprehensive education programme, called Thinkuknow, which provides targeted advice to children, parents and carers, including on how to use social media safely. A specific site for parents, which provides valuable guidance on protecting their children from online risks, is available at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/.
52. The Department for Education has also produced advice aimed at parents to help them keep their children safe from cyberbullying, spot the signs that suggest they might be being bullied and what to do if they are. The advice is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444865/Advice_for_parents_on_cyberbullying.pdf
53. There are a range of other resources available for parents and carers to inform them of how best to protect their children including, among many others, the websites of the NSPCC (www.nspcc.org.uk), Childnet (www.childnet.com), ParentZone (www.parentzone.org.uk), GetSafeOnline (www.getsafeonline.org), Cyber Streetwise (www.cyberstreetwise.com) and Internet Matters (www.internetmatters.org). In addition, leading social media and interactive services often educate users about safety as part of the experience on their platform. For example, they do this with information on their Safety Centre with tips to use the service safely, by asking users to respect the rules of the community, or by offering different safety tools. Other examples include the CBBC “Stay Safe” hub (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/curations/stay-safe) for information on staying safe online and Vodafone’s “The Digital Parenting Magazine”, which is free to order online for organisations working with families. Facebook and Google have also created tools and advice for parents and educators.
54. The GEO provided £75,000 to CEOP in 2015-16 to support a national roll out of Parent Info (www.parentinfo.org) which is delivered through schools. This is a free service for parents, which helps them show their children how to use the Internet and mobile devices safely and appropriately.
55. Through UKCCIS, specifically the Education Working Group, the Government will continue to encourage industry and organisations working on online safety in education to provide relevant tools, and lead education and awareness programmes to help parents and the communities around children and young people stay safe online.
Governance
7. What are the challenges for media companies in providing services that take account of children? How do content providers differentiate their services for children, for example in respect of design?
56. The UKCCIS guide ‘Child Safety Online. A Practical Guide for Providers of Social Media and Interactive Services’ includes examples of current good practice for services targeted at and attracting users who are under 18 years old. It describes for industry how different social media, interactive services and child safety charities are currently dealing with key challenges. The Guide uses the safety framework of the ICT Coalition for Children Online, a European industry initiative to make their platforms safer for users. This framework includes six principles for business on:
● Managing content on their service.
● Parental controls.
● Dealing with abuse and misuse on their service.
● Dealing with child sexual abuse content and illegal contact.
● Privacy tools and controls.
● Education and awareness about child online safety.
57. The UKCCIS Guide explains each of these principles, illustrating them with advice and examples from industry. It also includes additional advice for services that are targeted at under 13s, providing guidance and examples on deeper safety and controls to protect the youngest users on their platforms.
58. The Guide explains in detail how some challenges can be addressed through in-house safety policies, content management systems, content labelling and clear signposting, age-gating protections and identity authentication solutions, internal reporting processes, adequate staff training and product design, among other activities and tools. The Guide is available online - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/517335/UKCCIS_Child_Safety_Online-Mar2016.pdf
8. What voluntary measures have already been put in place by providers of content to protect children? Are these sufficient? If not, what more could be done? Are company guidelines about child safety and rights accessible to parents and other users?
59. Government takes the issue of child safety online very seriously and continues to engage extensively with industry through events and outreach. We expect social media companies to respond quickly to incidents of abusive behaviour on their networks. This includes having easy to use reporting tools, robust processes in place to respond promptly when abuse is reported, and suspending or terminating the accounts of those who do not comply with acceptable use policies.
60. The UKCCIS guide ‘Child Safety Online. A Practical Guide for Providers of Social Media and Interactive Services’ explains further measures in place by providers of content to protect children. These include community guidelines and/or terms of service setting out what the service prohibits (e.g. inappropriate behaviour such as threats or hateful content), product features (e.g. default privacy settings) to education and awareness programmes (e.g. in partnership with charities and specialist organisations with reach into schools).
61. The Government strongly encourages growing and emerging social media and interactive services to follow the advice of the UKCCIS guide, and for more established companies to regularly review their policies, tools and processes to ensure that these are fit to provide adequate protections for children and young people accessing their services. Ofcom as Chair of the UKCCIS Social Media Working Group have been leading on this work.
62. The Government is also supportive of the work of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in tackling illegal images, and recognises the work that the internet industry has done to make removing child sexual abuse content a real success.
63. The Government is also working closely with key Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to do more to restrict access to terrorist and extremist content online and to promote counter-narrative materials.
Legislation and Regulation
9. What are the regulatory frameworks in different media? Is current legislation adequate in the area of child protection online? Is the law routinely enforced across different media? What, if any, are the gaps? What impact does the legislation and regulation have on the way children and young people experience and use the internet? Should there be a more consistent approach? NB: Given the Committee is keen to leave the scope of this inquiry quite broad, media companies might include traditional broadcasters, advertisers, social networks, platforms such as YouTube. We are also including gaming.
64. The current law in England and Wales includes a number of criminal offences and rights to civil actions which may be relevant in cases of misuse of the internet or social media. Material published on the Internet, or by mobile phone, etc, is subject to the same restrictions as material published elsewhere: in other words, what is illegal offline is illegal online.
65. Self-regulation also allows a broad range of interested parties to participate and can be an effective way of coming up with innovative and effective solutions to issues which, due to the nature of the internet, are often global. However, Government is prepared, where necessary and effective, to take legislative action in order to deliver our objectives as is the case on age verification legislation for access to sites containing pornographic content.
Criminal offences online
66. The Government is absolutely clear that abusive and threatening behaviour online - whoever the target - is totally unacceptable. In general, an action which is illegal offline is also illegal online. The law does not differentiate between criminal offences committed on social media or anywhere else – it is the action that is illegal.
67. A number of criminal offences may be committed by those abusing others on social media, including: credible threats of violence to the person or damage to property; sending grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing messages; harassment or stalking.
68. Legislation that can be used to prosecute online abuse and related offences includes the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; the Malicious Communications Act 1988; and the Communications Act 2003.
69. Under the Protection of Children Act 1978 (as amended), the UK prohibits the taking, making, circulation and possession with a view to distribution of any indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child under 16 and such offences carry a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment. Section 160 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 also makes the simple possession of indecent photographs or pseudo-photograph of children an offence and carries a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment. This age was raised to 18 in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and there are defences for those aged over the age of consent (16) who produce sexual photographs or pseudo-photographs for their own use within a marriage or civil partnership. These defences are lost if such images are distributed.
70. The Sexual Offences 2003 Act, which came into effect in May 2004, significantly modernised and strengthened the laws on sexual offences in England and Wales to provide extra protection to children from sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. The Act reflects what we know today about the patterns and impact of sexual abuse in childhood. It was designed to meet 21st century challenges of protecting children, and addresses issues including internet pornography and ‘grooming’ children for sexual abuse. It provides a range of offences that can be committed, and/or encouraged and assisted online. For example, section 15 of the Act: meeting a child following sexual grooming.
71. Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 makes it an offence to send material to another person which conveys an indecent or grossly offensive message, a threat or information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender. The offence can also be committed by sending an article or electronic communication which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature. In order to be guilty of the offence the sender’s purpose (or one of them) in sending the item must be to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom the sender intends that the item or its contents or nature should be communicated.
72. Changes to the law in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 increased the maximum penalty for offences under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 to two years imprisonment, and removed the requirement that prosecutions should be brought within six months of the offence being committed.
73. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 makes it an offence for someone to pursue a course of conduct which amounts to harassment or causes someone to fear violence. Online harassment is not separately criminalised but may be considered as part of the general criminal offence of harassment. Offences under this Act have been deliberately worded in such a way as to capture a wide range of behaviours which include harassment, stalking and bullying. Harassment is generally understood to involve improper, oppressive and unreasonable conduct that is targeted at an individual and calculated to alarm them or cause them distress. The conduct might be verbal or non-verbal and it does not have to be the same type of action on each occasion. Critically the individual elements of a course of conduct need not in themselves be criminal. However when a series of events are seen in combination, they may form a course of conduct which could amount to a criminal offence. A ‘course of conduct’ in a case of conduct in relation to a single person must involve conduct on at least two occasions.
74. Section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003 creates a specific offence of sending (or causing to be sent) grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing messages over a public electronic communications network. Section 127(2) creates a separate offence of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another either by sending or causing to be sent, by means of a public electronic communications network, a false message or by persistently using the network. Amendments were made to the Act by the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 which extended the time within which prosecutions under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 may be brought, to up to three years from commission of the offence, as long as this was also within 6 months of the prosecutor having knowledge of sufficient evidence to justify proceedings.
75. Sexual Risk Orders and Sexual Harm Prevention Orders were created by the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, replacing previous civil orders designed to reduce the risk of future sexual offending. These orders allow prohibitions to be placed on individuals to reduce the risk of their (re)-offending in future. These prohibitions are tailored to the risk associated with an individual and can, if necessary, include restrictions relating to internet usage.
76. Public protection and investigating whether an offence has taken place are matters for the police. Where an individual is concerned they are at risk of an offence being committed against them or they believe an offence may have been committed, they should always contact the police. It is then for the police to investigate any reports that an offence has taken place and for the police or the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether to prosecute, depending on the circumstances of the case.
77. Published guidelines for the application of the current statute law to prosecutions involving social media communications was consulted on and was recently updated. It is clear and readily accessible through the Crown Prosecution Service at http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/a_to_c/communications_sent_via_social_media/.
78. The Government is committed to preventing these crimes and to giving every child the protection and support they need. Our laws in this area are rightly robust, strict and respected across the world and it is vital that victims of crime see strong and certain justice delivered to their offender.
Common framework for media standards
79. The Government set out its concerns relating to consumer confidence in, and safety in, accessing audiovisual content in a more converged world in the 2013 paper ‘Connectivity, Content and Consumers’ so that a more consistent approach applied across different media. The paper is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/connectivity-content-and-consumers-britains-digital-platform-for-growth
80. Industry and regulators worked together on a voluntary basis to ensure a common framework for media standards. This framework aims to support a more consistent approach across different media and make sure consumers understand what content has been regulated.
81. Ofcom has been leading the work to develop the framework, focusing on linear broadcast and on demand television as well as ‘TV-like’ content in the internet television space where that is currently regulated by Ofcom.
82. Ofcom conducted a number of roundtables and bi-lateral meetings with individual industry stakeholders to discuss their current processes and approaches to ensuring standards protection, and will produce a report to DCMS on a way forward.
Video games
83. Video games are subject to a mixture of statutory and voluntary regulation mainly linked to the Pan-European Games Information (PEGI) classification system. The Government urge those caring for children to look carefully at the PEGI or other age classification information on video games and also to consider using the parental controls where they are available. On video games consoles for example, controls can be set to block access to games with certain PEGI age ratings and also to block internet access.
84. PEGI - which has been adopted in most countries across Europe - classifies video games content against criteria which includes for example, depictions of violence, sexual scenes or themes, depictions of self-harm, drug use, bad language, gambling and the ability to interact online with other players. Video games are awarded 3, 7, 12, 16 or 18 PEGI age ratings as appropriate and pictograms are attached to the games to indicate the type of content they contain.
85. On behalf of PEGI across Europe, the UK’s Video Standards Council - operating as the Games Rating Authority (GRA) - reviews and classifies games that are unsuitable for children younger than 12.
86. In the UK, the PEGI age ratings awarded by the GRA for video games supplied on physical media (console and PC games on discs, for example) have statutory backing under the Video Recordings Act 1984. Under this Act, it is illegal to supply any games on physical media without a PEGI rating if they are unsuitable for children younger than 12. For the UK, the GRA is also able to refuse to classify a game entirely - and effectively ban it from sale - if it considers the content to be illegal under any area of UK law or be likely to cause harm.
87. The market for games produced and delivered specifically for distribution via online channels and mobile devices ('apps) is global and protections focus on self-regulation by games developers, publishers and platform providers. In Europe, Microsoft, Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo all require PEGI ratings for games supplied via their consoles’ marketplaces - XBox Marketplace, Playstation Store and Nintendo eShop.
88. Beyond the consoles, a key initiative in this area is the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC). IARC ratings vary depending on cultural differences but a games company instantly has an age rating for all or most of the regions where their digital product will be delivered from a single application process, including in the UK.
89. The IARC system has been implemented on the Google Play Store, which is used for Android-powered devices, and by Microsoft for its Windows Store on PC, tablets and mobiles. This means that all apps and games on these storefronts now display PEGI ratings for users across the UK and Europe. Apple uses its own age ratings system for apps and games distributed through its Apps Store.
Statutory guidance for schools
90. Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is the statutory guidance to which all schools and colleges must have regard, when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Working Together to Safeguard Children is statutory guidance for all schools that sets out inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The guidance is available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2 (See also question 5.)
Age verification for access to sites containing pornographic content
91. The Audio Visual Media Services Directive sets out that content that might seriously impair the development of minors must only be offered behind access controls for video-on-demand (VOD) and it must not be broadcast (on television) at all. The Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014 amended section 368E of the Communications Act 2003 to make clear that that material that has been or would be rated R-18 by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), and also any other material that might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors must be subject to protection measures, i.e. age verification. Material which has been refused a classification by the BBFC is banned from being placed on VOD services.
92. The Government has committed to introduce Age Verification (AV) checks for all commercial sites providing pornographic material online and, following public consultation, introduced clauses on AV within the Digital Economy Bill in July 2016.
93. Our proposed legislation will require commercial providers of pornography to implement robust age verification controls on their websites to prevent under 18 year olds from accessing pornographic content. The Bill’s provisions enable the Government to set up a regulator or regulators with the authority to instruct ancillary services, such as payment and advertising services, to withdraw their facilities from non-compliant sites. The aim of this is to disrupt the business models underpinning online pornography (whether it is free at the point of use or a paid service) and to require companies to comply with UK law or risk losing their income streams. Our aim is to capture all sites regardless of where they are based, with a targeted and proportionate approach.
94. By introducing AV checks, we will help to create a safer online environment for children in the UK. Our proportionate regulatory approach ensures maximum impact on commercial providers, making it harder for children to see this content. It also holds commercial pornography providers responsible for the harms they might facilitate.
95. This approach will sit alongside existing initiatives and we will continue to work on broader child internet safety issues, including work led by UKCCIS.
10. What challenges face the development and application of effective legislation? In particular in relation to the use of national laws in an international/cross-national context and the constantly changing nature and availability of internet sites and digital technologies? To what extent can legislation anticipate and manage future risks?
96. Whilst we can pass legislation which provides for extraterritorial jurisdiction, there are issues with identifying and tracing those who provide services from abroad which include illegal content (e.g. indecent images of children). For example, servers may host websites and whilst we may be able to block them, taking effective legal action is difficult.
97. The definitions we use allow the courts to widely interpret various legislation and also to apply older statutes to cover modern offending. The law has been interpreted pragmatically and, when required, updated by way of case law and statute.
98. As and when new technology has outstripped legislative capacity we have taken steps to address the gaps identified. For example, S65 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 was introduced to provide a definition of images to include data capable of conversion into moving or still images. Further, S69 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 amended the Protection of Children Act 1978 to extend the definition of ‘photograph’ to include derivatives of photographs, such as other forms of data. These derivatives include computer traced images, for example, computer traced images of photographs taken on a mobile phone or images manipulated from photographs using computer software.
11. Does the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation take sufficient account of the needs of children? As the UK leaves the EU, what provisions of the Regulation or other Directives should it seek to retain, or continue to implement, with specific regard to children? Should any other legislation should be introduced?
The EU General Data Protection Regulation
99. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into effect on 25 May 2018. Following on from the EU referendum, the Government is considering how best to approach the legislative and administrative requirements to most effectively provide a data protection framework that will work for citizens and business alike; and that can be assessed as providing an adequate level of data protection. This will be a relevant consideration in the UK’s future negotiations. In this regard the Government will work to ensure that the emerging framework provides sufficient protections for children.
Online Child Sexual Exploitation
100. Measures contained in EU legislation relating to online child sexual exploitation are well-entrenched in UK law and processes and would remain in place regardless of decisions about the EU legislation on exit from the EU. However, Article 25 of Directive 2011/92/EU on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, requires states to, inter alia, take necessary measures to ensure the prompt removal of web pages containing or disseminating child pornography and block access to web pages containing or disseminating child pornography towards the Internet users within their territory. In the UK this function is carried out by the IWF on a voluntary basis and we will ensure this activity can continue.
101. The Government is about to begin the European Union negotiations and we will work to ensure the best possible outcome for children and young people everywhere.
12. What more could be done by the Government? Could there be a more joined-up approach involving the collaboration of the Government with research, civil society and commerce?
102. The Government is at the forefront of a multi-stakeholder approach to dealing with child internet safety. The 2008 Byron Review ‘Safer children in a digital world’ recommended the creation of a UKCCIS – a body which would be responsible for developing and overseeing child internet safety solutions.
103. Today, the UKCCIS Executive Board is chaired by Ministers across three Government departments, reflecting the cross-cutting nature of child internet safety: Edward Timpson MP, Minister of State for Vulnerable Children and Families (Department for Education), Sarah Newton MP, Minister for Vulnerability, Safeguarding and Countering Extremism (Home Office), and Baroness Joanna Shields, Minister for internet Safety and Security (Department for Media Culture and Sport). Its secretariat sits within DCMS and Government officials, and other departments are involved as necessary (e.g. the Department of Health, CEOP) to ensure a consistent and joined-up approach across Government.
104. UKCCIS oversees child internet safety solutions, and the Government’s commitment to it remains strong. It brings together Government, industry, law enforcement, academia, mental health experts, charities and parenting groups to work in partnership to help to keep children and young people safe online. It is a unique multi-stakeholder forum representing over 200 organisations with an interest in child internet safety, and we believe it is responsive and relevant in a fast-paced and changing landscape.
105. To that end, the Executive Board was reviewed in June 2016 to incorporate new voices and fresh experiences, as well as to retain existing expertise. Industry representatives include the leading social media and technology companies (e.g. Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter), the largest ISPs and mobile network operators (e.g. BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Vodafone, O2/Telefonica), child online safety experts, charities and academics (e.g. Childnet International, The Diana Award, NSPCC, Professor Sonia Livingstone, Internet Watch Foundation), and mental health practitioners (e.g. Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust). UKCCIS also incorporates the broader child internet safety community through associate membership.
106. The UKCCIS Executive Board responds to new and emerging issues by setting up working groups with the ability and expertise to examine in-depth these issues and their impact. Current UKCISS Working Groups include:
● Evidence Working Group: this group stays up to date on national and international research on child online safety, monitoring trends and challenges (see also question 4). It produces summaries of a large body of internet safety research, available at http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/research, to inform policy-making.
● Digital Resilience Working Group: this group will map the gaps in the provision of digital resilience programmes for children and young people, and to explore and present recommendations to Government. This will also aim to support children and young people, as well as their parents, carers and teachers, to have the digital skills and emotional understanding to feel empowered to take action when they encounter problems online – whether this relates to bullying, promotion of harmful social, physical, psychological or emotional behaviours for example self harm, anorexia; poor mental health and well-being, or pornographic or extremist content. This in turn will help equip children and young people to identify and help deal with online risks that might lead to possible harm. The Group will engage with schools, parents, industry, expert civil society organisations and children themselves.
● Technical Working Group: this group will monitor and identify technology trends that may have an impact on children and young people, with particular considerations for child internet safety including issues like the Internet of Things.
● Social Media Working Group: following publication of its Social Media Guide, it will continue its outreach programme for the UKCCIS guide for providers of social media and interactive services to reach the startup community.
● Education Working Group: this identifies challenges faced by education settings across policy implementation, standards, training and delivery of resources, and undertakes projects to support education settings to address gaps or weakness in their online safety practice.
107. UKCCIS has achieved considerable success, without the need for statutory regulation, and through the enthusiasm and voluntary efforts of its members, fostering discussion on child internet safety policy (See also question 1). Some of UKCCIS’s achievements and future work plan, include:
● A guide for providers of social media and interactive services to encourage businesses to think about ‘safety by design’ to help make their platforms safer for children and young people under 18.
● The roll-out of free, network level filters for the vast majority of broadband customers with prompts to encourage parents to activate them, and automatic family-friendly public Wi-Fi in places children are likely to be, as well as considering potential problems around overblocking.
● Working with the RDI (UK) Holdings to design a Friendly Wi-Fi logo, to allow parents and families to easily identify places where they can be sure that the public Wi-Fi has filtered inappropriate websites.
● A guide for parents and carers whose children are using social media.
● Sexting guidance to support schools and colleges on responding to incidents of ‘sexting’.
● A regular UKCCIS newsletter for associate members to provide updates on progress of the working groups, and to share news and information on research and relevant developments.
108. UKCCIS’s full Executive Board and Associate membership and publications are available online - https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-council-for-child-internet-safety-ukccis
109. The sexual exploitation of children online cannot be dealt with by any one country, company or organisation working in isolation: a coordinated global response is needed to respond to this global threat. In response, the UK has supported the WePROTECT Global Alliance to End Child Sexual Exploitation Online: a global coalition of countries, technology firms and organisations committed to national and global action to end the online sexual exploitation of children, working together to identify and safeguard more victims of this terrible crime and apprehend more perpetrators. The UK has already galvanised activity on a global scale through a £10 million programme of capacity building by UNICEF in 2015/16 and UNICEF has now launched the Fund to End Violence Against Children to deliver global responses.
23 September 2016
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[1] UKCCIS is a body responsible for developing and overseeing child internet safety solutions. See question 12.
[2] For more on what constitutes ‘appropriate’ filtering, schools may consult the UK Safer Internet Centre’s guidance titled “Appropriate Filtering for Schools”.
[3] Filtering companies may contact the CTIRU at NCTPFC.CTIRU.Public@met.pnn.police.uk.