In May 2018 BBC News reported that Children under the age of 13 were being groomed through social media live streaming.
The Internet Watch Foundation conducted research on images and videos produced from live-streaming and found that 98% of victims of child sexual abuse were 13 years or younger.
The Chief Executive of Barnardos, Javed Khan said that technology companies were “simply not doing enough to keep children safe”. He asked for better age verifications when streaming online.
An investigation conducted between August and September 2017, by The Internet Watch Foundation, found that 2,082 sexual abuse images were obtained through live streaming. Of that sample group in the investigation, 28% of the children in these images were between 7 and 10 years old and 69% of these victims were aged between 11 and 13 years old.
Ofcom has now published its annual report, looking at the types of services and devices that children are using across the UK. The report named Facebook as the “main” social network, but this has seen a decrease over the last year by children between 12 and 15 years of age. The social media apps that have gained in popularity over the last 12 months are Snapchat and Instagram, both of which use imagery instead of written text.
The report also shows that the highest percentage of children with social media profiles were those aged between 12 and 15 years old.
The research asked this age group whether they used subscription streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video , Netflix and Now TV. The response to this was quite astounding, showing that 58% watched television programmes on these forms of subscription services, but a huge 89% of this age group watched YouTube regularly.
This now presents concern surrounding the content of videos and how they are monitored and regulated.
It poses the question .. are technology services doing enough and is the minimum age limit of 13 years on social media adequate to protect our children?
Tim Berners-Lee created our World Wide Web in 1989, for the purpose of sharing data from one computer to another. The advancement of computer technology and the recent development of social media apps, allows anyone, at anytime to communicate across the globe. Are we now facing the true reality of how these platforms are being used to exploit our children?
Ramsdens Solicitors is dedicated to helping parents to ensure their children are protected against the dangers of abuse.
In our new ebook, we offer advice on how parents and carers can ensure they have all the tools required to make keep their child safe while on the internet, and while playing online games.
Click the below image to read the E book.
Abuse team