Children’s Privacy

Debate between Countess of Mar and Lord Bates

Tuesday 6th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

The noble Lord puts his finger absolutely on the point, which is the difference between images—which is the context of the campaign, as I understand it—and the identification attached to an image of a child, which requires consent. That is the area of balance and the area of debate that we are seeking to square in this.

[The Countess of Mar (CB)]

My Lords, does self-regulation apply to internet service providers?

[Lord Bates]

The We Protect campaign, which the Prime Minister launched and which is chaired very effectively by my noble friend Lady Shields, is about self-regulation. It announced a major breakthrough just before Christmas about internet service providers seeking to remove child abuse images from the internet, identify abusers and ensure that they are brought to justice.

Fraud: Phone Scammers

Debate between Countess of Mar and Lord Bates

Thursday 4th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

It is relevant in this regard—that you can go online, as I did this morning, and in five steps put in your mobile telephone number, and it will then be removed from the mass-mailing contact numbers that are often the first port of call for many of these phishing and vishing exercises.

[The Countess of Mar (CB)]

My Lords, my family have been members of the telephone preference scheme for years and we still get telephone calls from people in the United Kingdom, not just Indian calls. How can they be stopped?

[Lord Bates]

It is very difficult. Sometimes they are using data that were provided before the person delisted from the system. That is something that Ofcom is looking at, and the Government are engaging with Ofcom in that matter, but it is an ongoing problem that we will have to live with.