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Internet (Governance)

The Minister's comments reflect something I said a while ago in the presence of some people from the Metropolitan police. They included Charlie McMurdie, who said afterwards, ““Yes, it's a good idea—we're already doing it.”” The Minister is absolutely on the ball, and some police forces are very much up to date, but others are not enabling staff on the front desk to tell people what they need to do when they wander into the police station and say, ““This has happened. What should I do?”” We therefore need to improve communication and to make better, more focused use of Get Safe Online, as I said. The more we use language that emphasises the human damage, rather than the technology, the more likely we are properly to inform public policy and to reassure the public. That is why I am a bit dubious of using the word ““cyber”” as if it identified something different and discrete from human behaviour.