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Online Child and Adult Protection

Indeed. I was about to pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his work as chair of the all-party group on communications, which means that he brings to these matters considerable experience and wisdom. Let me place on the record my condolences to the families of Ashleigh Hall and Camille Mathurasingh, whose lives were taken in tragic circumstances—circumstances on which we all need to reflect to see what more can be done to prevent such tragedies in the future. In the time that I have, I should like to say a little about the context in which the debate is taking place and to return specifically to the questions that my hon. Friend raised. Like him, the Government recognise the benefits to individuals and, indeed, to children of being able to use online services, including social networking services. I have to confess that I am of a generation that finds them rather baffling and makes limited use of them, but my children use new technology as a matter of course and, as a parent, I am of course concerned about their safety and the use that they make of those services. The reality is that social networking sites enable children to have fun in a different way, to share gossip, to play games, to build online friendships and to use some of the services available online, but as my hon. Friend pointed out, that raises issues about how we can keep them safe in those environments, particularly when there is an unusual friendship and when social contact clearly does not take place in the traditional way, which can bring protection to children. The process can be quite isolated, if we are not careful. It falls to Government to ensure that we keep children safe online as far as we can. There will always be people who look to use new technology for criminal ends. The horrific case of Ashleigh Hall demonstrated how the internet can be used by those who seek to harm others. At one extreme, as in Ashleigh's case, we are talking about murder, but elsewhere on the scale there is a whole range of criminal activities, including fraud, for example. I want to say something about the way in which we have tried to keep children safe. Sometimes this is forgotten, particularly when individual cases make headlines, but we in the United Kingdom have one of the most robust mechanisms in the world for dealing with sex offenders, and for protecting children from them when offline. We work, and have tried very hard, to ensure that the same principles apply in the online world. That means having the right legislation in place to deal with online and offline offences against children. It means a dedicated law enforcement response to handling reports of online threats to children and to tackling offenders, and a structure to bring together all the groups with a contribution to make in protecting children online. That latter point is important. The Government believe—as the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee said in its report on personal internet safety—that although the Government have responsibilities on the issue, they cannot address all the problems facing us on the internet on their own. What we have done, and will do if necessary, is turn to legislation. Many of the offences committed online are old offences, albeit in a new medium. We must ensure that our legislation keeps pace with the fast-changing online world. That is why the Sexual Offences Act 2003 introduced the offence of grooming and made it a crime to attempt to prey on children, including through the internet, for sexual purposes. The law made it clear that such activities would not be tolerated in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, more than 100 people have been convicted of the offence. We will continue to respond to the need for changes in legislation as technology and services change.