Rhiannon was the victim of a sexual predator who befriended her via an online chatroom when she was 13. Here she explains why many children's charities are raising awareness among parents on the risks of end-to-end encryption and to help ensure that, if rolled out, safeguards are put in place to mean vast amounts of online child sex abuse won’t suddenly go undetected.
I was 13 years old when I was sexually abused and blackmailed by someone I met online. I speak from my own experience when I say the devastating impact of child sex abuse lasts a lifetime, not just for the child but for their entire family.
Much of this abuse happens on messaging platforms, where perpetrators can browse for children they don’t already know or trade images with other sex abusers.
In the last year alone, social media companies made over 21 million reports of online child sex abuse on their sites, containing over 60 million images.
These reports were a result of online safety systems used to detect and report suspected child sexual abuse. Facebook’s contribution is particularly significant, accounting for 94% of all reports made.
These reports play an important role in protecting children and stopping child sex offenders. This includes the case of David Wilson, a prolific paedophile who was identified when Facebook’s own safety systems meant he was reported to the National Crime Agency. Wilson had posed as a teenage girl and blackmailed 51 young boys into sending him extreme content, sometimes forcing them to take images abusing younger siblings. He was jailed for 21 years. Some of the boys were so traumatised they considered taking their own lives.
This important work makes it even more concerning that, from next year, Facebook intends to reduce its online reporting. They have announced plans to roll out end-to-end encryption by default, which means their automatic monitoring systems will no longer work. Facebook’s team acknowledges that the changes will lead to a reduction in their reporting, with estimates that 14 million reports of child sex abuse could be lost each year.
To mitigate against this, platforms have announced measures to educate children on resisting “unwanted attention.” This shows a complete misunderstanding of how adult abusers operate, and the highly manipulative grooming techniques they use. Most children do not report their abuse or even see themselves as victims.
It isn’t fair to expect children to be ‘better’ at keeping themselves safe online, nor should we expect parents to solve this global challenge on their own.
While UK legislation can and should play a part in putting a duty of care on providers, it cannot fight online child sex abuse alone. The internet is a global entity, with victims and perpetrators located around the world and tech companies often based in the US. That’s why tech companies must play their part.
Unsurprisingly, children’s charities, police, Interpol, tech experts and other survivors like me have all expressed concern. Yvette Cooper and Priti Patel agree on this. But so far, Facebook does not seem to be budging.
That’s why last week I wrote to Mark Zuckerberg, asking him to do everything he can to keep children safe on his platforms. This means making a commitment that any roll out of end-to-end encryption will be accompanied by safeguards to ensure it does not become harder to report abuse. While I’m not holding my breath on a reply, I’m willing to try anything. The stakes are too high.
As a child, I convinced myself that what happened was my fault, but I now know it wasn’t. If tech companies put in place end-to-end encryption without proper safeguards, they must accept the blame for the catastrophic impact that this will have on our children.
Rhiannon was the victim of a sexual predator who befriended her via an online chatroom when she was 13. After grooming Rhiannon online, the perpetrator went to her home to sexually abuse her and recorded the abuse with images and videos. Rhiannon was eventually able to move forward with her life and went on to study law at university and in 2019 qualified as a lawyer specialising in family law. Rhiannon now works at the Marie Collins Foundation as a Subject Matter Specialist, using her experience to inform professionals in the UK and around the world, speaking at conferences, events, within training programmes and to the media. She has also presented to young people and hopes her story will help others to recover and lead fulfilling lives.
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[Trigger warning] As a survivor of child sex abuse, I’m asking tech companies to do more to keep children safe online
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JuliaMumsnet · 22/03/2022 16:14
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