Duchess of Edinburgh and Jess Phillips raise need to tackle online child abuse
Sophie and Ms Phillips will travel to Brussels on Wednesday, where European politicians are gathering to draw attention to the harms children face.
The Duchess of Edinburgh and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips will join forces as they highlight the need to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation online.
Sophie and Ms Phillips will travel to Brussels on Wednesday, where European politicians are gathering to draw attention to the harms children face online.
In her role as the patron of the NSPCC and Plan International UK, two charities that are raising awareness about the dangers, Duchess will address senior European politicians at the gathering, which is hosted by the European Parliament Intergroup on Children’s Rights.
Home Office minister Ms Phillips will meanwhile speak on a panel alongside other political figures and is expected to call on other nations to go further in their plans to protect children online.
The joint visit between the Royal and a Government minister comes amid an uptick in the number of the most extreme images online.
The Internet Watch Foundation, a charity that monitors child sexual abuse images and urges companies and governments to work to remove them, recorded a 22% increase in category A images – its most serious classification – between 2022 and 2023.
This was the worst year on record for child sexual abuse online, according to the IWF.
Ahead of the visit, Ms Phillips, said: “Child sexual abuse is a horrific crime that is impacting more and more children, victims and survivors in all of our communities across the world and the effects can last a lifetime.
“This most devastating of crimes transcends international borders – victims are often exploited in their homes by offenders across the globe using platforms that are headquartered in many different countries.
“It is therefore crucial that we drive forward a global response and improve global capacity to tackle this crime. Enough is enough. We must act now and urgently see strong action from governments, tech, frontline professionals, police and law enforcement.”
Ministers plan to introduce stronger laws to clamp down on online child sexual abuse as part of domestic efforts to tackle its spread.
Measures in the Crime and Policing Bill currently making its way through Parliament will make it illegal to create or own AI tools designed for making child sexual abuse images, among other new offences.
