Minister ‘seeks to cause alarm’ over online abuse

Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, speaking at the IPPPRI25 conference on 19 May. Photograph by Richard Cranefield

The Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, says she “seeks to cause alarm” to ensure the public understand the damage to society being caused by increasing levels of online child sexual abuse.

Speaking today [19 May] at the annual conference of Anglia Ruskin University’s International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI), Phillips said that political change often reflects public opinion.

Referencing the young average age of perpetrators of child-on-child abuse, Phillips said: “I don’t think we’ve scared people about this enough. What I know as a politician is that politics reacts to what the public genuinely ask it to. On child sexual abuse, we need to do quite a lot of work to take the public on a journey with this. Getting the public onside is a really important thing.

“I want to cause alarm. I seek to cause alarm on this subject. It is dangerous and it is frightening. We have a lot to do.”

Phillips also stressed that domestic legislation will “never be enough” to tackle a global issue, but believes the UK’s new online safety act “will improve the global conversations more than anything else”.

Phillips added: “The online safety act is not the end of the conversation, it is the foundation. We will not hesitate to strengthen the law further to ensure the safety our children and the British public. Tech companies should hear, loud and clear, that if their technology hides child abuse, that is on them and it has to change.

“I think [technology companies] can manage to find child abuse that is being shared secretly, and should put as much investment into that as into the algorithms that pop up on my children’s phone.”

Phillips also said work needs to be done to improve the systems in place to protect victims: “I have worked for years with adults who were abused as children and children who were being directly abused themselves. I have seen how systems failed them, I have seen how systems continue to fail them and are not designed with them at the heart.

“Abuse of power against those who are most vulnerable leaves lifelong trauma and scars at huge cost both to the exchequer and society. Almost all of the most problematic cases I have ever handled stem from somebody being abused as a child and having nowhere to turn.”

The three-day Anglia Ruskin University conference features an array of international speakers covering areas such as deepfakes, the dark web, gaming platforms, and threats posed by artificial intelligence.

This year’s event, the largest of its kind in the UK, places particular emphasis on prevention, early intervention and the vital role of education in safeguarding, and brings together academics, law enforcement, policymakers and advocates united by the common goal of protecting children online.