Adults from the East of England have overwhelmingly back robust new laws to protect children from abuse on social media and want bosses to be held responsible for safety, new polling suggests.
The NSPCC and YouGov survey found that in the East nine in ten respondents (93%) want social networks and messaging services to be designed to be safe for children.
The poll of more than 2,000, which surveyed adults across the UK shows huge support for putting a legal requirement on tech firms to detect and prevent child abuse, while backing strong sanctions against directors whose companies fail.
Further results from the East of England show that 93% of respondents want firms to have a legal responsibility to detect child abuse, such as grooming, taking place on their sites.
Three in four adults (81%) in the East support prosecuting senior tech managers if their companies consistently fail to protect children from abuse online. Meanwhile, 83% of respondents want these tech bosses fined for abuse failures.
NSPCC Chief Executive Sir Peter Wanless said it shows a huge public consensus for robust Duty of Care regulation of social media.
He is urging the Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to listen by ensuring his landmark Online Safety Bill convincingly tackles online child abuse and puts the onus on firms to prevent harm. He set out the Government’s vision for legislation in December.
The survey found that just six per-cent of East-based adults think sites are regularly designed safely for children, but 74% support a legal requirement for platforms to assess the risks of child abuse on their services, and take steps to address them.
It come as the NSPCC’s ‘Delivering a Duty of Care’ report, released earlier this week, assessed plans for legislation against its six tests to achieve bold and lasting protections for children online.
It found that Government is failing on a third of indicators (nine out of 27), with tougher measures needed to tackle sexual abuse and to give Ofcom the powers they need to develop and enforce regulation fit for decades to come.
Sir Peter Wanless said: “Today’s polling shows the clear public consensus for stronger legislation that hardwires child protection into how tech firms design their platforms.
“Mr Dowden will be judged on whether he takes decisions in the public interest and acts firmly on the side of children with legislation ambitious enough to protect them from avoidable harm.
“For too long children have been an afterthought for Big Tech but the Online Safety Bill can deliver a culture change by resetting industry standards and giving Ofcom the power to hold firms accountable for abuse failings.”
The NSPCC is calling for legislation to be more robust so it can successfully combat online child abuse at an early stage and before it spreads across platforms.
They want a requirement for tech firms to treat content that facilitates sexual abuse with the same severity as material that meets the criminal threshold.
This means clamping down on the “digital breadcrumbs” dropped by abusers to guide others towards illegal material. These include videos of children just moments before or after they are sexually abused – so-called ‘abuse image series’ – that are widely available on social media.
The charity also want Ofcom to be able to tackle cross platform risks, where groomers target children across the different sites and games they use – something firms have strongly resisted.
In its report, the NSPCC called on the Government to commit to senior management liability to make tech directors personally responsible for decisions on product safety. They say this is vital to drive cultural change and provide an appropriate deterrent against a lax adoption of the rules.
The charity wants to see senior management liability similar to the successful approach in financial services. Under the scheme, bosses taking decisions which could put children at risk could face censure, fines and in the case of the most egregious breaches of the Duty of Care, criminal sanctions.
They warn that Government has softened its ambition and at present just propose liability for narrow procedural reasons, which will only to be enacted later down the line.
The NSPCC has been the leading voice for social media regulation and the charity set out detailed proposals for a Bill in 2019. The Government’s White Paper consultation response in December set out the framework for an Online Safety Bill that is expected in the Spring.
