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Abusive Images (Internet)

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Judy Mallaber) on securing this hugely important debate. I pay tribute to her work with John Carr, who has done an excellent job, and many other people in highlighting this matter. She has not simply come to it in the past couple of weeks, but has worked on it dedicatedly and passionately for a number of years. People should be aware that if it was not for the campaigning that she and a number of other hon. Members have done, notwithstanding the challenges that she has made this morning, we would be far behind where we are now. I want to put that on the record. Sincerely and genuinely, children are safe today who would not have been but for the actions of such people. I will address my hon. Friend's points as I go on, but to reassure her, the Government want 100 per cent. blocking and we will consider legislating for it. We believe that the companies responsible for social networking sites have a responsibility to monitor and act proactively to ensure that the sites conform to the various codes that have been produced. We also believe that the role of parents is crucial. They should know what is happening in their child's bedroom with respect to the internet. We want to encourage parents to take responsibility for that, as many do. The education of children themselves is also hugely important. I reassure my hon. Friend on all the direct questions that she raised. Blocking in particular is something that we will be taking forward proactively. We are appalled by the continuing misuse of the internet to distribute images of child sexual abuse. They are not virtual images of fictional activity; they are images of real children being abused, whether in the UK or elsewhere. We are fully committed to tackling the creation, sale and possession of such images. As most people already know, for a substantial period of time the UK has completely prohibited the production, possession and distribution of images of child sexual abuse. Shortly after use of the internet became widespread, it was recognised that it was being misused to spread such images. The UK industry responded in 1996 by setting up the Internet Watch Foundation to operate the world's first dedicated hotline for reporting images of child sexual abuse. With the support of industry, Government and law enforcement, the IWF has been very successful in tackling hosting of such images in the UK. As a result of that partnership approach, the percentage of child sexual abuse content reported to the IWF or found by the IWF to be hosted in the UK has been reduced from approximately 18 per cent. in 1997 to less than 1 per cent. now. That means that sexually abusive images of children are primarily hosted abroad. To protect UK users from inadvertent exposure to such content, the IWF also facilitated an industry-led initiative by blocking access to it through the provision of a dynamic list of child sexual abuse internet addresses. I draw to the House's attention the fact that the UK internet industry was the first in Europe to commit voluntarily to blocking access to such images. We should recognise that the vast majority of the industry has joined together responsibly to do so. The process is now being considered and recommended in countries all over Europe and elsewhere. As my hon. Friend pointed out, 95 per cent. of our broadband services use the blocking list. I am grateful to the industry members whose efforts have contributed to its success for their continued support for the Internet Watch Foundation. However, the Government are committed to achieving a target of 100 per cent. blocking on all commercial networks. At a Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre conference last week, the Home Secretary made it clear that we want the target to be met and that we are happy to discuss with the industry any genuine issues that need to be resolved to see how we can help. If that approach does not work, we are considering a number of other options, including legislation if necessary. We hope it will not come to that, but if more formal regulation is needed, we will consider it.