Writing for The Mirror, former Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips said she has seen how tech can protect kids from men who groom them on their phones – and said action is long overdue
I have met British teenage girls, forced to do heinous sex acts on camera online by men who groomed them from the comfort of their homes in both Preston and Pennsylvania.
I have seen British men chatting in online forums about sending a fiver to girls for live cam streams of children under 10 years old. The entire business model of global paedophile rings and also just the local isolated sex abusers relies on children being duped and groomed to take naked images and live stream their abuses. The only tool they need is a phone.
The Government have announced today that they will give tech companies three months to stop children in the UK from being able to take, send and receive naked images. The tech exists. I’ve seen it.
In front of my eyes I watched a phone block the camera capability when presented with a naked images of a child. Stopping children ever being pressured in to taking these images will begin the end of the 91% of child sexual abuse online that is self generated.
Tech firms frankly should have done this long ago, because why wouldn’t they? What possible purpose is there for children to take naked images?
I’m pleased that the Government have said that they will legislate to ensure that tech companies act, I look forward on working with them to make the strongest possible legislation to ensure it happens. I resigned over this issue, because I wanted to push it, it has become a near obsession for me to make sure that it happens, and so I shall watch the Government closely over the next three months and in that time draft up the necessary legislation with them.
When we do this we will be the first in the world and it will begin a domino fall that will protect children the world over.
No parent in the country would let their child go to a scout camp with a known paedophile, no teacher would allow a child to go home to a bedroom they knew would be the site of sexual abuse, but thats exactly what has happened when we hand our children smart phones without the proper protections.
Let’s change it, lets remove the paedophiles tools and access and for god’s sake let’s do it fast.