Lisa Nandy's statement on protecting children online
The Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport updates Parliament on steps the government is taking to create a safer online environment
With permission, Madame Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the next steps this government will be taking to protect children online.
This government’s ambition is to be the world-leaders in shaping an online that works for us. We intend to be an active government that helps to create an online environment that is not just safe, but enabling and empowering.
That starts with fixing the fundamentals, and this House can expect to see us acting more quickly and decisively from now on to keep us safe online.
In December of last year, the government published its Action Plan to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, and I’d like to put on record my gratitude to the hon. Member of Leicester West, who I think is here today, and to the hon. Member for Birmingham Yardley for their clear ambition and determination that the UK would become the first country in the world where it would be impossible for children to take, share, or view nudity online.
In June, the government challenged industry - on a three-month timeline - to work with us and set out roadmaps for how they would strengthen device-level protections for children, with a view to preventing children from taking, sharing or viewing nude images on phones and tablets.
Today, I can update the House on the progress that has been made, and the next steps that this government will take to protect children.
Since June, officials from my department and the Home Office have overseen an unprecedented work programme with Apple and Google, working with senior leaders and engineers to explore new ways of preventing child sexual abuse and strengthening protections for children online.
I can report that - following this engagement - Apple and Google have provided the government with significant commitments.
Both companies have developed meaningful changes at the operating-level to make it harder for children to share nude imagery, we have seen progress in the blocking – not blurring – of nude imagery on underage devices, and this builds on significant milestones already in implementation - Apple’s recent rollout earlier this year of operating-system level age assurance tied to safety features, preventing a child from receiving or sharing nude imagery on iMessage or Facetime.
These proposals are a step in the right direction. However, the truth is, Madame Deputy Speaker, they do not meet the scale of this crisis.
Children are facing unacceptable levels of sexual harm online. They are being groomed, coerced, and manipulated into creating and sharing intimate images across online services.
The Internet Watch Foundation believes that 91% of these images are self-generated by children themselves. They are used for blackmail and sexual extortion.
Each year, around 9,000 child sexual abuse offences involve an online element, with under 18s the subject of almost a quarter of online blackmail.
Madame Deputy Speaker, I challenge anyone to listen to those statistics - and come to the conclusion that the internet is a safe place for kids, or to come to the conclusion that the government should not get involved.
This is not the first time in history that new forms of technology have upended society. But what is unique to this moment is that that technology has been developed almost exclusively in the private sphere – so I want to be clear that there is a central role for government in shaping that technology for good.
Not just to protect from harm, although that is a basic obligation of any government, but to enable and empower. When it comes to the development of technology that affects our lives, we are not neutral.
In no other walk of life would we tolerate this crisis harming our children, we will not tolerate it online.
For too long, technology companies have failed to protect children from some of the worst harms. And to be frank, I am not prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt that progress will continue at the pace that we need it to, while harm is being done now.
For that reason, I want to make the following announcements to the House:
First, the government is today committing to introducing primary legislation to require major tech platforms to build in device-level protections for children. This will be introduced to parliament as soon as we can – recognising the urgency of this issue whilst ensuring we work with colleagues across the House to get it right. We want to see movement on this quickly.
If platforms in scope of this draft legislation develop and implement technical solutions while our work is ongoing, we will of course reassess whether legislation is necessary.
We know that this is a sector that can - when required - innovate at an extraordinary pace when the chips are down.
But alongside these measures on devices, the government will also require apps - that children use - to prevent them from accessing or sharing nudity, as soon as possible. We will explore what legislation is needed to implement this commitment, with a view to moving as quickly as possible. This will ensure that the whole ecosystem changes, tackling the means by which children are most often abused or groomed in the online world.
Put simply, we will give tech companies the chance to lead – we will not give them the chance to lag.
Madame Deputy Speaker, these measures - taken together - will make Britain the first country in the world to go this far and a world leader in online safety.
The message we are sending to tech companies is clear - planning must now become implementation, and progress must translate into protections that make a real difference in children’s lives.
I give my commitment to all members of this House, and to anybody listening out there in the country, who has been desperately worrying about what is happening to our children online, that when it comes to children’s safety, we are not and never will be bystanders.
And I commend this statement to the House.