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Online Child and Adult Protection

I agree very much. That is why a key part of the strategy is not just about the number of children who have gone through the programme in schools and elsewhere, but about working proactively with parents to make sure that they understand the risks and how to address them, and take whatever precautions they can. I am grateful for the work of not only CEOP and others, but charities and industries, which have played an important part through the Home Secretary's taskforce for the protection of children on the internet and, following the Byron report, UKCCIS. One of the first pieces of work carried out by the taskforce was the development of guidance for social networking providers. That guidance set out good practice, and that was at the core of my hon. Friend's speech. Some of the big social networking sites work hard to deliver on that guidance. When it was launched in 2008, the document was the first in the world dealing with how children can be kept safe and what service providers can do to ensure that children have safety information available to them, and that includes using the "Click CEOP" button. None the less, we remain disappointed that a number of major providers of such services have not yet implemented the "Click CEOP" button. I expect those responsible for the provision of services online to take responsibility for providing safety mechanisms and information to their users. In the case of services where there can be communication between people who have not previously known each other and where identities can be invented, I expect providers to make the "Click CEOP" button available to allow users who feel threatened or vulnerable to make a report. My hon. Friend posed a number of questions, to which I want to respond directly, although I hope that I have touched on them in my remarks. He talked about registering paedophiles' e-mail addresses. He will know that we have legislated for a power to add such a requirement to the existing sex offenders register notification requirements, but that power has not yet been implemented. That is because we are awaiting legal advice. We will get that advice after a judgment from the Supreme Court on the F v. Thompson case. We certainly do not want to prejudice that appeal, but once we get that advice, and provided that it does not rule out adding new restrictions, we can and will work with social networking companies to see how information can best be used to protect children online. If that means disclosing details of child sex offenders' e-mail addresses to social networking sites, so be it. My hon. Friend's second question was on the use of the CEOP button by social networking sites. As I said, we have argued that it should be used by all sites. Many sites, such as Bebo, have taken it up, while others have agreed to do so at some point in the future. We see absolutely no reason why sites should not take it up. I am happy to tell my hon. Friend that the Home Secretary and I will meet representatives of Facebook later this week to impress on them the need to allow users who feel threatened to have access to the CEOP button. My hon. Friend asked about child protection filters on mobile phones. We work closely with the mobile phone industry, where technology is moving very quickly. As part of those ongoing discussions, we are considering child safety issues relating to the use of a new generation of phones, rather than exclusively to images. I was interested by what he said about people having a personal e-mail account on a website such as Directgov. Let me take that idea away and think about it. If I may, I will write to him in detail on the issue. What more can we do to improve online child protection on social media sites? As I said, we have taken a number of actions, but the most important point is that all of us, including the industry, have a responsibility to work together to tackle the problem and to ensure that children are safe on the internet. The Government will continue to provide a law enforcement response, as well as information and education about the threats, but we expect the providers of services to play their part by providing those who feel threatened with links to law enforcement bodies, support and information. I hope that I have reassured hon. Members that the Government take these matters seriously and that work is very much in progress.