Online child protection plan comes under fire

Child protection experts say Government plans to regulate social media risk falling significantly short of protecting children from online abuse.

The NSPCC says there are major shortfalls in the draft Online Safety Bill currently being examined by MPs and peers, and the Government risks failing to meet its ambition to make the internet safe for children.

The charity says new figures show a 78% increase in police reports of child sexual abuse offences involving an online element in the last four years.

According to figures obtained by the charity, the number of online child sexual offences has risen from 5,458 in 2016/17 to 9,736 in 2020/21.

The charity's report warns there are still major gaps in the draft Bill's child safety duty which would exclude some potentially harmful sites from liability, that it fails to hold senior managers at tech firms accountable and that it should commit to introducing a statutory user advocate for children.

NSPCC chief executive, Sir Peter Wanless, said: “Children should be able to explore the online world safely. But, instead, we are witnessing a dramatic and hugely troubling growth in the scale of online abuse.

"The Government has, at the moment, a once-in-ageneration chance to deliver a robust but proportionate regulatory regime that can truly protect children from horrendous online harms.

"But, as it stands, there are substantive weaknesses in its plans which cannot be overlooked.”

He added: "The draft Bill fails to prevent inherently avoidable abuse or reflect the magnitude and complexity of online risks to children.”