Source: Ofcom published on this site Wednesday 18 December 2024 by Jill Powell

Ofcom has, four months ahead of the statutory deadline^, published its first-edition codes of practice and guidance on tackling illegal harms – such as terror, hate, fraud, child sexual abuse and assisting or encouraging suicide^[ – under the UK’s Online Safety Act.

The Act places new safety duties on social media firms, search engines, messaging, gaming and dating apps, and pornography and file-sharing sites. Before they can enforce these duties, they are required to produce codes of practice and industry guidance to help firms to comply, following a period of public consultation.

Ofcom have consulted carefully and widely to inform their final decisions, listening to civil society, charities and campaigners, parents and children, the tech industry, and expert bodies and law enforcement agencies, with over 200 responses submitted to their consultation.

As an evidence-based regulator, every response has been carefully considered, alongside cutting-edge research and analysis, and we have strengthened some areas of the codes since our initial consultation. The result is a set of measures – many of which are not currently being used by the largest and riskiest platforms – that will significantly improve safety for all users, especially children.  

What regulation will deliver

The illegal harms codes and guidance markshttps://www.ofcom.org.uk/ a major milestone in creating a safer life online, firing the starting gun on the first set of duties for tech companies. Every site and app in scope of the new laws has from today until 16 March 2025 to complete an assessment to understand the risks illegal content poses to children and adults on their platform.

Subject to the codes completing the Parliamentary process by this date, from 17 March 2025, sites and apps will then need to start implementing safety measures to mitigate those risks, and the codes set out measures they can take.[4] Some of these measures apply to all sites and apps, and others to larger or riskier platforms. The most important changes Ofcom expect the codes and guidance to deliver include:

• Senior accountability for safety. To ensure strict accountability, each provider should name a senior person accountable to their most senior governance body for compliance with their illegal content, reporting and complaints duties. 
• Better moderation, easier reporting and built-in safety tests. Tech firms will need to make sure their moderation teams are appropriately resourced and trained and are set robust performance targets, so they can remove illegal material quickly when they become aware of it, such as illegal suicide content. Reporting and complaints functions will be easier to find and use, with appropriate action taken in response. Relevant providers will also need to improve the testing of their algorithms to make illegal content harder to disseminate. 
• Protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation online. While developing the codes and guidance, Ofcom heard from thousands of children and parents about their online experiences, as well as professionals who work with them. New research, published today, also highlights children’s experiences of sexualised messages online^[4], as well as teenage children’s views on our proposed safety measures aimed at preventing adult predators from grooming and sexually abusing children.^[5] Many young people we spoke to felt interactions with strangers, including adults or users perceived to be adults, are currently an inevitable part of being online, and they described becoming ‘desensitised’ to receiving sexualised messages.

Taking these unique insights into account, our final measures are explicitly designed to tackle pathways to online grooming. This will mean that, by default, on platforms where users connect with each other, children’s profiles and locations – as well as friends and connections – should not be visible to other users, and non-connected accounts should not be able to send them direct messages. Children should also receive information to help them make informed decisions around the risks of sharing personal information, and they should not appear in lists of people users might wish to add to their network.

Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Monday 16 December 2024 by Jill Powell

UPDATED prosecution guidance, which clarifies the law on when deceiving someone or failing to disclose birth sex could affect consent in rape cases, has been published 16 December by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The new deception as to sex guidance has been updated to assist prosecutors in their decision making in this complex area of law.

The law, which the guidance reflects, states there is no difference between a deliberate deception about birth sex and a failure to disclose birth sex.

Central to the update, the guidance makes clear:

• In line with the law on consent – charges will depend on whether a victim was aware of the person’s birth sex and therefore consented to sexual activity by choice. The suspect must also have reasonably believed consent had been given.
• It also clarifies that a suspect may deceive a complainant as to their birth sex if they choose not to disclose their sex or trans identity. It also clarifies there is no expectation for a complainant to confirm the sex of the defendant prior to sexual activity.
• Not every situation where a trans or non-binary person fails to disclose their sex will involve a criminal offence – each will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Prosecutors are given guidance on the evidential considerations to be applied in these cases, including where the suspect is trans or non-binary, as well as relevant case law and an explanation of how a failure to disclose sex could remove consent.

Siobhan Blake, Chief Crown Prosecutor and national lead for rape and serious sexual offences, said:

“We recognise this is a highly sensitive area of law – it is important our guidance provides prosecutors with the knowledge they need to make decisions in the rare cases where deception as to sex may have occurred. Importantly, this guidance also clarifies the law where suspects are non-trans such as females pretending to be male and vice versa. Every prosecutor has a duty to act with impartiality, each case is always assessed on its individual merits, so we make fair and objective decisions”

To enable prosecutors to make informed decisions, the updated guidance includes background information on trans and non-binary persons. There have also been revisions to the language used in the guidance, so it better reflects current social terminology.  

The CPS has updated the title of the guidance to more accurately reflect that this part of the law is based on a person’s sex, rather than gender identity.

The new guidance forms part of the Rape and Sexual Offences prosecution guidance.

Source: Department for Education published on this site Tuesday 17 December 2024 by Jill Powell

Protecting children at risk of abuse and stopping vulnerable children falling through the cracks are at the heart of a landmark children’s Bill, set to be introduced in Parliament today (17 December).

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is central to delivering on the government’s Plan for Change, which will put children’s futures at the centre of rebuilding public services, and break down barriers to opportunity. The measures will help ensure all children get the best start in life, to drive the sustainable, lasting change that children and families need – and deserve – to achieve and thrive. 

Over recent years, there have been a number of shocking cases of children being failed by a disjointed system. The measures introduced today will write children’s best interests into law and make child-centred government a reality. 

The Bill will introduce new registers to identify children who are not in school. With better knowledge of where children are, councils can more easily deliver the support that’s needed and ensure a high quality education is being provided. 

The Bill will also pave the way for a unique identifier number for children across services – like the national insurance number works for adults.  

Parents will no longer have an automatic right to educate their children at home if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan. If a child’s home environment is assessed as unsuitable or unsafe, local authorities will also now have the power to intervene and require school attendance for any child.   

Teachers and educators are often the first to spot warnings of abuse or neglect, and last year, schools were the second largest referrer of cases into children’s social care. Measures in the Bill will make sure that teachers and schools are always involved in decisions around safeguarding children in their area.   

Breaking the cycle of crisis intervention is critical to securing better outcomes for children. Families should be able to rely on being able to access the help they need to keep their family together, but too often, disjointed services stand in the way.  

The government is doubling the investment for Family Help services to £500m next year, allowing local authorities to support vulnerable families and protect children before issues escalate to tragedy. The significant cash boost will strengthen family security and go towards providing wrapround support for families struggling with issues like substance misuse or mental health, getting help to the family and identifying children at risk earlier in the process, before problems get worse.   

Better data sharing is critical to ensuring issues can be spotted earlier and acted on. The unique identifier number for children will allow those responsible for the safeguarding and welfare of children to better join together relevant data, preventing children from falling through the cracks.  

While there will always be cases where children need to go into the care system, with earlier intervention, families can often be supported to stay together.  

That’s why the new laws will see all councils offer Family Group Decision Making – a service that brings extended family members together where a child is on the brink of entering care. This comes alongside a requirement on councils to publish a local kinship offer, so that family members and friends stepping in to care for children know what support is available to them. This could include training or access to peer support groups which provide valuable support networks for new carers. 

The Bill will also support the government’s crackdown on excessive profit-making by children’s social care providers, including introducing a backstop law to potentially cap the profit providers can make.   

New measures under the Bill will also help deliver on commitments to drive high and rising standards in education. They include: 

• Councils will be able to welcome proposals for all types of school, not just academies, so new schools are opened by the provider with the best local offer for local children and families. 
• All new teachers will hold or be working towards Qualified Teacher Status before they enter the classroom. They will also need to complete a statutory induction period. 
• Every schoolteacher will have the same core pay and conditions offer, and schools will have greater flexibility to attract and retain the best teachers. 
• Schools and councils will have to work together when it comes to school admissions, with councils given greater powers to ensure admissions decisions reflect local needs including the placement of vulnerable children. 
• Failing schools run by local authorities will not be automatically forced to become an academy, opening up a broader range of levers to quickly drive-up standards.   

Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Friday 13 December 2024

The father and stepmother of a 10-year-old girl whose body was discovered in her bed after the family had fled to Pakistan have today been convicted of her murder.

Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool have been found guilty of murdering Sara Sharif following what the court heard was a “campaign of abuse”.

Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, who was living in the house at the time, was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child. The prosecution case was that the trio were all complicit in causing her death.

The jury at the Old Bailey heard that Sara was a victim of assaults and abuse for weeks with injuries including fractures, burns, bruising and a traumatic head injury. Such was the severity of her injuries leading up to her death, the post mortem concluded that Sara died from complications from multiple injuries and neglect and could not give a definitive cause of death.

After Sara died at the family home in Byfleet, Surrey on 8 August, Sara’s step mother Beinash Batool called a travel agency to enquire about flights to Pakistan. Her father Urfan Sharif eventually booked the one-way flights for the next day, and when asked why they were so urgent, he claimed his cousin had died.

Urfan called police on 10 August, saying he had “legally punished” Sara and she had died, before claiming he had beaten her, but not intended to kill her.

Police found Sara’s body in the family home with a note written by Urfan, saying he had killed her and had “lost it”. The trio returned to the UK on 13 September 2023 and they were arrested on arrival in the UK from Pakistan.

Building the case

Sharif, Batool and Malik all accepted that the abuse to Sara took place within the family home in the weeks leading up to her death, but all denied murdering her.

Timelines were produced to account for the whereabouts of each defendant hour by hour and day by day during the relevant period, which used mobile phone evidence, Malik’s work record, the location data for Sharif’s car and usage of bank cards. This helped to evidence who was in the house at any time and when each of the three defendants was responsible for Sara’s care.

The court also heard evidence from neighbours of shouting and screaming, including a “single high-pitched scream” two days before Sara’s death, which was described as sounding like a scream of someone in pain.

Sara started to wear a hijab to school from January 2023, which hid much of her face. In March 2023, the school noticed bruising to her face, which was only visible when the hijab moved away from her face.  Just a month later, Urfan emailed the school to say Sara would be home schooled with immediate effect.

Libby Clark from the Crown Prosecution Service said:

“Sara was a happy, outgoing and lively child described as always laughing, who was cruelly abused and murdered by those closest to her. None of us can imagine how appalling and brutal Sara’s treatment was in the last few weeks of her short life. The injuries inflicted on her were absolutely horrendous. After Sara died, instead of calling 999, the three defendants immediately made plans to flee the country, thinking only of themselves and not telling police Sara was dead until they had safely landed in Pakistan.

“We were able to build a strong case, showing where each defendant was in the weeks running up to Sara’s death using mobile phone evidence, CCTV sightings and work records. In a small house with such a big family, it would have been immediately obvious to all the adults what was happening to Sara. Yet none of them took any action to stop it or report it. They all played their part in the violence that led to her tragic death.

“This was a complex case with much liaison with foreign authorities and our CPS international unit played a significant role in helping us to prosecute this case successfully”. We have today secured justice for Sara, a bubbly young girl, who was killed by the adults who should have protected her”.