108.A will only commit the offence if he intends that B should be the victim of an offence committed by A, or believes that B will be the victim of an offence committed by C. This will ensure that airline companies, road hauliers etc who are transporting someone without any such intent or belief are not captured. The offence is intended, however, to cover A if he is part of the enterprise of trafficking for sexual exploitation even if he is one link in a chain of people helping to traffic B. Provided A has the necessary intent or belief, the section will cover, for example, his recruiting B in B’s country of origin, his making arrangements for transport and food for B’s journey, his forging of immigration documents for B and his other involvement in bringing B to the UK. 99.Section 52 makes it an offence for a person (A) intentionally to cause or incite a person (B) into prostitution anywhere in the world where A does so for or in expectation of gain for himself or for a third party. Although this offence is not specifically limited to where B is aged 18 or over, it is aimed at cases where B is an adult, as the offence at section 48 specifically covers child porn cases where B is under 18.
For many mainstream platforms, the answer will be no – in which case they must decide how to approach age assurance. The most highly effective measures, such as ID verification, or using a third party digital identity add-on to provide facial age estimation, will introduce noticeable extra friction to the customer journey. Alternatively, platforms may be relying on less intrusive methods to conduct age assurance, such as behavioural indicators; but depending on the level of reliability and fairness of these methods, they may not always pass Ofcom’s threshold for being highly effective. This report funded by the NSPCC is the same study presented by Kwahli et al. (above) about the confidence, knowledge and skills of social workers around child sexual abuse. It includes recommendations for best practice and change around defining child sexual abuse, therapy and support, caseloads, and equality and diversity issues. This article provides a useful overview of pedophilia, its rate of occurrence, and the characteristics of pedophiles and sexually abused children.
How to keep children safe
Subsection (3) defines the concept of acting for the protection of a child as acting to protect a child from pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection, to protect the physical safety of a child or to promote the emotional wellbeing of a child by the giving of advice. The exception only applies if the person is not causing or encouraging an activity that would constitute an offence under sections 9 to 13 and if he is not acting for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification. An example would be where a health worker believes that a person is having sex with a child under 16. He advises that it is unlawful to have sex with children under 16 but supplies him with condoms because he believes that the person will otherwise have sex with the child without using any protection. It sounds like some of your child’s online behaviours are risky and I hope that I can offer some advice and support for you in addressing these issues.
This guideline covers the signs of possible child maltreatment in children and young people aged under 18 years. It aims to raise awareness and help health professionals who are not child protection specialists to identify the features of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. NICE have also produced a flowchart to outline the process of assessing risk and need in relation to child abuse and neglect. This study, published in November 2017 and conducted by researchers at the University of Bath, University of Bristol and CEOP for the NSPCC, explores the impact of sexual abuse on children and professionals’ responses to technology-assisted child sexual abuse (TA-CSA).
Vivour-Adeniyi stated that the Lagos State government, over the years, has been building the capacity of stakeholders to safeguard the rights and protect children. These new cases add to Ofcom’s 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, an online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, First Time Videos LLC and Itai Tech Ltd. We expect to make further enforcement announcements in the coming weeks and months.
It important to help children and young people to talk about anything they see and help them understand the world behind the images. The pornography industry is often considered to be degrading and one which involves criminality, exploitation and the abuse of power. For over 20 years, our Stop It Now helpline has been a vital lifeline for those working to prevent child sexual abuse. Recognising domestic abuse is incredibly important in protecting young people from further harm, you can read more about the signs of children experiencing domestic abuse and the support available to them here. “Content that would be prohibited offline is prevalent online, and considered mainstream”, Jess added. “This content includes sexualising children, depictions of incest, and content which shows overt sexual violence towards women, including forced penetration, gagging, and strangulation”, she continued.
Pornography
By virtue of subsection (2)(c), section 94 also allows for the supply of information to persons providing services to the Secretary of State in connection with these functions i.e. an executive agency or private company. 155.The notification period starts from the date of conviction, finding or caution. The ‘relevant date’ in relation to offences in Schedule 3 that are subject to sentence thresholds is set out in section 132. 138.In all cases, the person must not be causing or encouraging the commission of an offence or a child’s participation in it. This would therefore cover the person (A) who secretly films someone (B) masturbating in B’s bedroom to show to others for their sexual gratification.
- Where the notification relates to having stayed away from a home address for 7 days or more or to a prospective change of address, the offender may use a police station within the police area of that other address (subsection (2)).
- Providers of a number of online services have been required by Ofcom to submit their record of their children’s risk assessment by 7 August, or face enforcement action.
- Throughout my career as school-leader I have witnessed the harmful impact of pornography on young people.
- For example, section 2(1)(b) refers to penetration which is sexual and section 3(1)(b) refers to touching which is sexual.
- 268.Section 135 clarifies how the provisions in this Part apply in respect of mentally disordered offenders.
Evidence
Care has been taken throughout this summary to refer to ‘child sexual abuse images’ rather than ‘child pornography’ to reflect the non-consensual and illegal nature of the content. However, child pornography was included within the search terms when collecting evidence and is included in the publication titles provided within this summary. This summary refers to ‘contact sexual abuse’ to differentiate between viewing illegal images and personally committing abuse. Some publications refer to technology-assisted child sexual abuse to better reflect the nature of abuse that is not always online-only.
This means that by July 2025, all platforms must have a highly effective age assurance solution in place to protect under 18s. This is the case whether a service publishes its own pornographic content or allows user-generated pornographic content. We have issued guidance on how we expect services to implement highly effective age assurance in practice.
Part 1 of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 has been re-enacted with a number of amendments. A notification order enabling the notification requirements to be applied to offenders with convictions abroad has been created. Sex offender orders (s.2 of Crime and Disorder Act 1998) and restraining orders (s.5 of Sex Offenders Act 1997) have been combined into a new civil preventative order – a sexual offences prevention order.