Online Abuse advice
Online abuse advise for professionals working with young
people
Sexual Communication with a child under the age of 16 – new
offence
Section 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 inserts a new offence
into the Sexual Offences Act 2003, at section 15A, criminalising
sexual communication with a child.
This new classification criminalises conduct of an adult who
intentionally communicates with a child under the age of 16 (whom
the adult does not reasonably hold the belief for them to be aged
16 or over) with the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification if
that communication is sexual in nature or it’s intent is to
encourage that child to make a communication that is sexual.
Situations that will be covered by the offence include talking
sexually to a child in an online chatroom, sexually explicit SMS
text messages to a child along with inviting a child to communicate
sexually ( whether the invitation itself is sexual or not ).
The new offence is designed to ensure that it does not
criminalise ordinary social or educational interactions between
children and adults or communications between young people
themselves in an ever increasing age of technology and mobile
communication and improves the law substantially as prior to this
new offence, sexualised communication with children that was text
based was not actually a criminal offence on its own unless paired
with an actual attempt to meet up with a child.
From 3 April 2017, any adult caught breaking the law will face
up to two years in prison and be automatically placed on the sex
offenders register. The law will cover both online and offline
communication, including social media, e-mail, and letters.
We live in an age where children live their lives through social
media, so it's important that they are educated about how to stay
safe online and parents are aware of their children's use of social
media, sites and apps.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/circular-201701-sexual-communication-with-a-child-implementation-of-s67-of-the-serious-crime-act-2015
Disrespect NoBody campaign
The second phase of the Home Office Disrespect Nobody campaign
will run from 2 February until the end of March 2017.
The aim of the Disrespect NoBody campaign is to prevent young
people, both boys and girls aged 12 to 18 years old from becoming
perpetrators and victims of abusive relationships.
For 2017 the focus of the campaign will be consent and sexting,
which are both issues where many young people need more education
and information. The campaign advertising directs young people to
the website www.disrespectnobody.co.uk where they can get further
information and signposts them to organisations who can provide
support.
Please click on the link below to download the partner brief and
campaign materials.
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.smartcdn.co.uk/docs/Campaign_materials_for_Disrespect_NoBody_2017.pdf.pdf
Click here to go
to their website
Sexting: advice for professionals Policies and procedures and
what you need to do - September 2016
The NSPCC offers advice to professionals about how to respond to
incidents of sexting. This include: writing a sexting policy and
procedures; what to do if a young person makes a disclosure about
sexting; increasing public and professional awareness of issues
surrounding sexting.
All organisations must have a clear policy outlining their
approach and commitment to protecting children from the dangers of
sexting. There should also be clear procedures that detail the
actions which must be taken if a child makes a disclosure about
sexting.
Click this link for more information
Online abuse
The NSPCC is putting online sexual abuse in the
spotlight to ensure children are given the same protection in the
online world as they are offline. Two new reports have been
published: the first explores how Childline, the NSPCC helpline and
O2 are responding to children’s and parents’ concerns about content
online; the second reviews current research around children and
young people who display harmful sexual behaviour online. The NSPCC
is also calling on the government to expand the powers of the age
verification regulator relating to pornographic sites as part of
the Digital Economy Bill.
Date: 17 October 2016
Think U Know offers advice on internet safety - click on
this link to go to their website
FaceBook
Safety@Facebook
Policies, tools and resources to keep you safe. Click here to go to their
website
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has launched a
new campaign to deter people from viewing child abuse images
online. The Stop it now resources include information and support
to help users of online abuse images cope with difficult emotions
and change their behaviour. Further information can be found on
their website
Influence of images and videos in young people’s digital
lives
The UK Safer Internet Centre has published a report looking
into the role and influence of images and
videos in young people’s digital lives and the influence this
can have on their self-esteem, behaviour and emotions. Findings
from a survey of 1,500 young people aged 8-17 years old in the UK
include: 70% said they have seen images and videos not suitable for
their age in the last year; 22% said that someone has posted an
image or video to bully them; and 45% of 13-17 year olds have seen
nude or nearly nude photos of someone they know being shared around
their school or local community.
Source: UK
Safer Internet Centre Date: 07 February
2017
Further information: Power
of image report (PDF)