Thursday 31 July 2008
CEOP Centre backs calls for industry to improve online safety
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre welcomes the DCMS Committee’s report on Harmful Content on the Internet and in Video Games published today and supports any effort to make children and young people safer in online environments.
CEOP particularly welcomes the need to improve the level of protection for users of social networking sites by embedding a high profile one-click facility for direct reporting to law enforcement and support organisations.
Asked whether social networking sites are doing enough to protect young people when giving evidence to the Committee in March this year, CEOP’s Chief Executive Jim Gamble said: “Very few people are doing enough. Those people who have in place a mechanism for reporting abuse where danger manifests itself are doing a good job and the right thing. I believe that we should be able to come to some form of accommodation with them and I hope it is much sooner rather than later. We have the frustrating position where people say they need to talk and engage and we do, but we can talk only for so long and then we need to see action and not words”.
The committee’s report echoes the calls from the young people who attended last month’s first CEOP and Virtual Global Taskforce - led International Youth Advisory Congress (IYAC) on safety and security on the internet. Delegates called for a mandatory and universal browser-based 'report abuse' button embedded on the toolbar of each browser and on all social networking sites.
Represented on the UK Council on Child Internet Safety which reports to the Prime Minister, the CEOP Centre is looking forward to working with partners to ensure that as much as possible is being done to protect young users from any harm they may face in online environments.
The CEOP Centre also welcomes the report’s positive acknowledgement of its work and notes its recognition that CEOP's funding should be linked to the demand placed on its services.
Ends
Notes to Editors
1. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is a law enforcement agency and works in both online and offline environments. Full information on all areas of work as well as online safety messages and access to online reporting can be found at www.ceop.gov.uk or for children at www.thinkuknow.co.uk
2. CHILD ABUSE IMAGES, NOT ‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’ Use of the phrase ‘child pornography’ actually works to the advantage of child sex abusers:
• It indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser
• It conjures up images of children posing in ‘provocative’ positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse
Every photograph captures an actual situation where a child has been abused. This is not pornography.
For further information please contact Vicky Gillings, Hannah Bickers or Miriam Rich at CEOP Centre on 0870 000 3434.