Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to require operators of social media platforms to report communications sent via their service which are either indecent images or videos of children or messages which would lead to the sexual grooming of a child to a relevant police force.

It is right that all social media platforms put appropriate mechanisms in place to prevent the abuse of their legitimate platforms and services by those who would do children harm. In the UK, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety brings together parents, charities, industry and government to respond to issues of online safety, including child sexual abuse. In 2015, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) published a practical guide for providers of social media and interactive services.

The guide has examples of good practice from leading technology companies (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), and advice from NGOs and other online child safety experts. Its purpose is to encourage businesses to think about “safety by design” to help make their platforms safer for children and young people under 18. That guidance covers the steps to identify and deal with child sexual abuse content or illegal sexual contact. A number of social media companies are also members of the EU ICT Coalition. This is a European industry initiative to make members’ platforms safer for users. Members self-declare how they meet the guiding principles, and are subject to a review by an external auditor. These principles include child abuse and/or illegal contact.