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Internet and Video Games

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate, and I shall try to be brief, because I know that many other hon. Members want to participate. As the Committee’s report said, the internet is becoming more and more a part of our lives: for communications, research and commerce, it is now an indispensable tool. However, anyone who regularly watches television or reads the press is likely to have become aware of growing public concern about the internet’s dark side. That was something that the Committee particularly wanted to address. As the Chairman of the Select Committee, the hon. Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford (Mr. Whittingdale), has said, there is particular anxiety about the use of social networking sites and chat rooms for grooming and sexual predation. Although those environments may appear to a child to be relatively private, with defined boundaries, a user’s profile or an online forum may be open to thousands or even millions of other users who are all able to view, even if they do not actively participate. We had an example of that type of problem in my constituency this very week. To quote from the Lancashire Telegraph, under the headline ““Tory candidate’s mock website shows social networking dangers””:"““A spoof profile posted on the Friends Reunited website has prompted the Tory Parliamentary Candidate for Rossendale and Darwen to highlight the risks of social networking sites.””" That shows how careful and vigilant we must all be when using such sites. I am not surprised that he has claimed that he has been the victim of a spoof profile on the ““Friends Reunited”” website, for it was indeed damaging. I contend that a sane and rational person aspiring to parliamentary office could not possibly have posted it. It said, for example, that his interests were:"““Making money. Drinking. Driving. Dining out on other people’s expenses. Boogying. Bonking. Droit du Seigneur. Grinding the faces of the poor.””" I will not go on to the section about me, but it was even worse. Perhaps most distressing was the box at the bottom, where people are invited to say who their ““WeeMee”” is. I think that a WeeMee is someone whom you admire, and it looked for all the world like a cartoon character depicting Adolf Hitler. I am pleased to say that that has now been taken off the website, but clearly many people would have found it distressing. That rather raises the question why anyone would have wanted to pretend to be that person in that way. If those are his friends with whom he is reuniting, I would not like to see his enemies. The case also highlights the need for such websites themselves to be more careful about verifying that people who register with them are who they say they are, as the hon. Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford said. They must also monitor what is posted. As he pointed out, when we visited YouTube, we were concerned to find that it did not readily monitor everything that was posted, but relied on users to report inappropriate material to it. We state in our report our concern that:"““It is not standard practice for staff employed by social networking sites or video-sharing sites to preview content before it can be viewed by consumers.””" As in the case of YouTube, some of them"““do not even undertake routine review of material uploaded, claiming that the volumes involved make it impractical.””" The hon. Gentleman said that YouTube may be reviewing its policy. I very much hope that it does so. Nowhere is this more important than in the area of child pornography and the grooming of children and young people on the net. As part of our inquiry we visited the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, CEOP, which is run by the extremely formidable Mr. Jim Gamble. To give some indication of the success that CEOP delivers, I point out that it delivers a totally holistic approach, combining policing with the ““Safer By Design”” initiative and educational initiatives. CEOP’s latest performance results show that 131 children have been safeguarded from sexual abuse either directly or indirectly as a result of its activity. Of those, 18 have been identified through the examination of child abuse images. As the hon. Gentleman indicated, old-fashioned detective practices have been used successfully to locate the individuals involved. Some 297 arrests have been made as a result of CEOP activity and six organised paedophile rings have been dismantled or disrupted. In addition, since its launch, the ““thinkuknow”” education programme has reached 1.7 million children and young people between the ages of eight and 16 years, across all parts of the UK. During our visit to CEOP, we saw a moving and rather distressing video that it had produced about a young boy who had communicated in a chat room with someone whom he thought was his age and had the same interests, and he arranged a meeting. It turned out to be a much older man. The most distressing things occurred when he got there. I will not go into details, because they are really not very pleasant, but we should be under no illusion about what is involved. CEOP does an excellent job, and I hope that the Minister will recognise in her response that the centre’s resources should be increased. I hope that we will get a commitment that the Government will at least consider that. On a lighter note, social networking sites do have their uses. When we visited Facebook, its staff told us in no uncertain terms about how Mr. Barack Obama, the President-elect of the United States, had used the site relentlessly and very successfully both to raise money and to get out the vote. For my constituency, I have set up a group on Facebook called ““Say No to the Bus Lane on the A666 in Darwen””. It already has 577 members, and I urge hon. Members to get on to Facebook, join my group and stop the bus lane.