Protecting children online ‘futile’

ATTEMPTS TO protect children from all online risks may be “futile”, experts have warned, calling for the focus to be on making youngsters more resilient to the dangers they face.

Children are increasingly conducting their online lives in private, the research from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) found, with 95 per cent of 15-yearolds accessing social media before or after school in 2015.

And after independent investigators in Bradford called for a national strategy to combat the “overwhelming” scale of grooming cases being dealt with by authorities, experts have said efforts must focus on making children more prepared to deal with what they may encounter on the internet.

“Online activity is increasingly private, with young people using the internet in their bedrooms or on a smartphone,” the research said, with the way in which young people connect to social media changing at a rapid pace.

“It is therefore likely to be futile to attempt to protect children and young people from all online risks,” the report said.

“The focus of public policy should be on how to develop resilience in young people to maintain their emotional and mental wellbeing and to live safe digital lives.”

Independent investigators at Bradford Safeguarding Children Board (BSCB) called on Wednesday for a national debate around tackling online grooming.

Authorities were becoming overwhelmed, they warned, as a serious case review was held into the care of a young boy from Bradford groomed by 20 paedophiles.

Ultimately, it’s perpetrators in society that need to be identified. David Niven, chair of the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board.

Named only as ‘Jack’ in the review, he had been targeted from the age of 13 by older men he had met online, and despite the efforts of his parents and police, had still been able to access the internet without their knowledge and arrange to meet with them.

Jack’s parents had spoken in the report of the challenges they faced in trying to keep their son safe, and of the impact it had.

“The enormity and horror of what our son suffered would be any parent’s nightmare; the effect on our family was, and is, truly shocking,” they said.

“These should have been the happiest days of our son’s life, but he was robbed of his childhood.

“Our great fear was that life would become too unbearable for him to go on and a fear such as that never quite goes away,” they added.

Police and children’s services had come under fire for not intervening at an earlier stage despite concerns from his parents, school and GP, and both acknowledged “failings” highlighted in the report into the way in which Jack’s care was managed.

But David Niven, independent chair of the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board, said that while there were issues around Jack’s care, the sheer scale of online grooming coming to light was something which must be examined on a national scale.

“The statistics are absolutely enormous,” he said.

“We have daily meetings in Bradford and even then are nearly overwhelmed sometimes.

“It wasn’t the family that did this to Jack, or the authorities. It was the criminals.

“Ultimately, it was these perpetrators in society that need to be more closely identified.”