MNHQ here: AMA with Baroness Beeban Kidron - leading digital rights campaigner, member of the House of Lords and former Hollywood film director, 23rd June, 7-9pm

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Hi there,

We’re delighted to announce an AMA with leading digital rights campaigner, member of the House of Lords and former Hollywood film director Baroness Beeban Kidron, on Tuesday 23rd June, 7-9pm.

She’ll be discussing her new book USERS: How Big Tech Took Control and How to Fight Back:

“One of the earliest and most relentless advocates for online protections for children - and a prescient voice on the risks of AI – Beeban Kidron takes readers on a journey from the halls of Parliament and the UN to the White House and Silicon Valley. Through her encounters with specialist police officers, bereaved parents, lobbyists and tech bros, Users demonstrates the unchecked power of Big Tech, as they avoid rules and regulations, and capture governments that are meant to protect us.

“The issue is not technology itself, but its use and abuse. How tools built to connect people are redeployed to divide, punish, distract, and control; while our tech overlords come to own everything – but continue to be held responsible for nothing. Now that we know their game, it's time to fight back.”

Please post your questions below and join Beeban on the thread on Tuesday evening to hear the answers. Everyone who posts will be entered into a draw to win one of five copies of USERS*.

As always, please remember our guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered, and please keep it civil.

Thanks,
MNHQ

*Competition Ts and Cs apply.

better not best - you have to read the book Careless People about Meta to see bad behaviour of women too :(.

Ultimately I am for having lots of voices in the room. But we must think beyond gender. Much of my best political advice has come from 12-17 year olds from all around the world - maybe because no one has told them yet what can't be done !!

i will go on for a bit and try and answer what I can. i do try and answer all my post at lords but I am not perfect - there is a lot of it

Thank you to everyone for your questions. I am going off now, but happy to return for a session at a later date if that is of interest.

I want in particular to express my support to parents who feel they are struggling. As I said in one of my answers, it is not a fair fight, and given that parenting is already the land of good enough, the tech piece feels overwhelming. The only sage advice I have is that you don't have to know about tech to know whats good for your child. We have 70 years of child development research and hundreds of years of lived experience that tell us loving relationships, economic security, safety, free play, consistent rules and time to explore - it is not what they see online but the opportunity cost of what they are not doing that is so damaging.

(and of course for us)

Thank you for having me on MN

If any of you want more it is in USERS How big tech took control and how to fight back.

thank you for your answer and all the best

Thank you again.

So many cases, I cannot believe an expert in online digital rights is unaware of the issue.

I am not unaware. I am responsible for a new laws in this area to make it easier to prosecute perpetrators and get rid of loopholes in the law because of AI.

And I am sorry if my answer was unclear. But while I agree that the prosecution is key and I share your frustration that the police/courts do not catch and prosecute at sufficient scale. Your original comment appeared to suggest that there was no point in putting responsibility on the companies or in making the law better - and I would disagree with that.

You cant have a companies at this scale (social media and AI) that is have no responsibility for how it enables the creation and spread of images - and is responsible in many ways for easy access and creating a bigger appetite for this material. Nor can you let people off because AI is exempt in ways material would not be in the real world. This issue is covered in my book , the fight to change the law, and the lengths to which successive governments failed to answer an urgent need to stop the spread - until they were forced to do so.

As you say - it still needs a great deal more work in the courts- but you cant send people to prison if the law cant catch them and if we cant stop the spread there will be more perpetrators - so it is not a choice we need both.

I hope that is clearer.

‘What is the point of this whole shebang when men who make child abuse images are routinely never given any jail time for this crime? Its like child abuse image making is effectively decriminalised.’

There’s also the role of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines to consider.

https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/guidelines/possession-of-indecent-photograph-of-child-indecent-photographs-of-children/

Too many judges seem to feel obliged to veer downwards to ‘Community Order’ rather than custodial; and any custodial sentences are frequently suspended.

The law does catch the men who make and distribute child sexual abuse images, then they get suspended sentences. Barely a tap on the wrist.

Hence originally asking 'What is the point of this whole shebang when men who make child abuse images are routinely never given any jail time for this crime? Its like child abuse image making is effectively decriminalised. Why not tackle the harms to actual children by taking a stand against child sexual abuse directly?'

These are children who have been directly abused and their images shared across the world. All the work to find the men who do this, arrest them, get their hard drives, take them through the court system and then they let them go.

Thanks to everyone for your questions - and congratulations to @stripedlemon @ThatVividDuck @MulberryFresser @TheAutumnCrow and @PerkingFaintly - you've each won a copy of USERS!

Please email [email protected] with your details so we can get your books sent out.

Thanks,
MNHQ

Oh gosh, thank you – I'll appreciate very much having a look through the Baroness's book.

It's also on my To Do list to come back to this thread and post some plums from the paper the Baroness recommended above, which is definitely worth reading – particularly the Executive Summary on pp7-8.

It was written in 2021 but answers some of our questions now!

https://5rightsfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/But_How_Do_They_Know_It_is_a_Child-1.pdf

And for those who didn't win a copy - we're delighted to share a free link to the first audio chapter of the book: you can listen here.