Sexual abuse survivors and experts are demanding that major tech leaders take action to ensure their services are safe for children
- The letter urges companies to engage with victims to assess the risks of technical products
A coalition of more than a hundred sexual abuse survivors, families and child safety experts have written to the heads of major tech platforms demanding they take urgent action to ensure their services are safe for children.
The letter was sent to executives including Mark Zuckerberg at Meta, Evan Spiegel at Snap, Meredith Whittaker at Signal and Tim Cook at Apple.
It urges companies to engage with survivors to assess the risks to child safety of new and current products, including end-to-end encrypted messaging services.
Signatories from 24 countries include Phoenix 11, a collective of survivors whose child sexual abuse was recorded and spread online, and survivors who work directly with the NSPCC as campaigners for online safety.
Organizations that have signed include The Alliance to Counter Crime Online, Barnardo’s, The Canadian Center for Child Protection, Collective Shout, ECPAT International, Eurochild and The Network for Children’s Rights.
A letter has been sent to tech company bosses urging them to ensure their services are safe for children using their platforms (file image)
A survivor named Frida, who was sexually abused via WhatsApp, said: ‘As a 13-year-old, I deserved to be safe and earned the right to express myself on the internet.
‘In my early twenties, I deserve the right to privacy, the right to know that explicit images and videos of me as a child should no longer be shared.
“For myself and millions of other young people at risk of sexual violence online, the right to express ourselves online is not compatible with the right to safety and the right to privacy.
“It’s time for you to take responsibility for upholding the rights and safety of your users.”
The letter added: ‘The push for end-to-end encryption without safeguards will mean that offenders can contact, groom and abuse children behind closed doors. In the future, it will be a new technology that puts children at risk. We should not continue on this path.’
Sir Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said: ‘We need a global effort to ensure that young people like Frida have their security and privacy rights respected, including within end-to-end encrypted messaging services.
“It is critical that lawmakers take advantage of the opportunities they have to give children the online protections they deserve.
“In the meantime, technology companies must get ahead of the law and take action now to make their products safe for all users who rely on their services, including children and victims of abuse.”
Signatories from 24 countries include Phoenix 11, a collective of survivors whose child sexual abuse was recorded and spread online (file image)
The letter comes as the UK’s Online Safety Bill enters the final stages of parliament before being passed into law.
This week, Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan insisted that the long-awaited legislation had not weakened measures to curb encryption.
End-to-end encryption is a security measure that protects data and communications by encrypting them, meaning only the sender and recipient can read the data.
It is widely used to protect sensitive information, with Signal and fellow messaging service WhatsApp among its high-profile users.
Tech companies had said a provision in the Online Safety Bill would give the regulator the power to try to force the release of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communications services.
WhatsApp and other messaging services had warned they would withdraw from Britain rather than risk people’s ability to communicate securely.
A statement by digital minister Lord Parkinson in the Lords in September was seen by some as confirmation that the government was taking a step back and changing its approach.
Ms Donelan insisted on Tuesday that nothing had changed in the bill, which she said contained a “safety net” that “may never have to be used”.
It is believed the bill could clear all stages of parliament on Tuesday, pending royal assent.