MP Tim Loughton delivered speech regarding UK Council for Child Internet Safety

London. 07 February 2012: UKCCIS has launched a guide on child internet safety for organisations and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to help parents and children get quality and consistent messages about Internet safety. Tim Loughton MP for East Worthing and Shoreham delivered a speech at Ofcom on Monday 06 February 2012 regarding UK Council for Child Internet Safety. Mr Loughton praised the many organisations involved including Intellect for their hardwork in bringing this initiative to fruition. The full speech can be read below:

Changes to ICT

Thank you and welcome to the launch of UKCCIS advice on child Internet safety. It’s a pleasure to be here today and to see some familiar faces and some new ones too.
I want to start by talking about the huge opportunities opening up to the UK through computing, the Internet and Web 2.0. It is, quite simply, an area of extraordinary potential for growth. In gaming, software design, social media, TV and programming. There has never been a more exciting – or more important – time to be involved in technology.
The Government is 100pc determined to make sure this country takes full advantage of the opportunities technology brings.
And as you may be aware, the Secretary of State announced a few weeks ago that the National Curriculum Programme of Study for ICT will now be withdrawn in schools from September this year to be replaced with a new, much more rigorous and useful Computer Science GCSE.
The old ICT exam simply wasn't equipped to deal with the growing economic importance of technology. It failed to stretch students and was both uninspiring and unappealing.
To remain competitive, pupils need to begin to understand the complex language of computer programming and algorithms. Not simply sit in class looking bored as they are taught how to cut and paste in Adobe. The real value of technology lies as much in being able to design it, as use it. Behind the wonderful usability and simplicity of an icon expanding when you touch an iPad, is a language that is – arguably – every bit as important to learn as Mandarin, French, German or Spanish.

The challenge

I am acutely aware, however, that technology brings with it concomitant risks.
I bought a laptop recently and there was no prompt whatsoever to set up parental controls. My question to you is, are we doing absolutely everything possible to ensure internet safety for children?
As a parent it feels like you have to learn a new language each time you look for online safety advice – it would be so helpful to find that you just need to learn the one language!
There is compelling evidence that more absolutely needs to be done – Ofcom and EU Kids Online data show that
o       around 20% of 8-15s with social networking profile have it set to open (Ofcom)
o       29% of UK children have had contact with people they had not met before (EU kids online)
o       And around a fifth of parents do not talk to their children about staying safe online, are not confident that they can protect their children and don’t have any rules about safe internet use

The work of UKCCIS

This should be a massive concern for everyone in this room today. And I’ll wager many more of us fall into the bracket of the 88pc who are deeply concerned children are being forced to grow up too fast nowadays.
From the Prime Minister down, this Government is determined to support parents and protect children from the worst excesses of the internet and web 2.0.
As you have already heard in the presentations earlier, the UKCCIS advice is a set of universal guidelines which website owners and service providers can draw on when designing their safety features and advice – they can customise messages to children and parents.
So there is now a parallel between the way that schools will be using and adapting materials and messages to suit their children’s needs and the way in which all those who provide internet services to children can now do – using this advice.
It’s magnificent to hear that more than 40 organisations helped to shape the key messages in this advice, including Microsoft, Facebook and CEOP. This is an excellent example of the partnership working that UKCCIS is all about. We hope the guidelines will help spread clear, consistent and accessible safety advice right across the various online services used by children.
And I cannot stress how important it is that these messages get through to children. What may look and sound obvious to us may not be obvious to parents and children. We need to continue working together and encourage parents to take sensible steps such as using parental controls to filter, monitor, and manage access, installing reputable antivirus/ firewall software and setting clear guidelines for their children about what is ok to share about themselves and about their family.
You are all aware that encouraging progress has been made since I first became co-chair of UKCCIS - the four main fixed-line ISPs, BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin, were the first to commit to active choice for broadband connections. They published a code of practice in October 2011, which will see all new customers making an active choice – an unavoidable choice - about parental controls by October this year;
I, and my fellow Ministers have also chaired roundtables to help progress active choice with the desktop, laptop and tablet sectors, and with the mobile phone industry. Intellect, the technology trade body, is carrying on the momentum. We understand that the ecosystems of these industries are complex, but we are seeing promising progress;

Industry and CEOP

I am also delighted to see examples of independent initiatives from industry. For example, Vodafone has recently released their own application for Android smartphones, which lets parents apply advanced controls across the range of things that smartphones do and Dixons has led the way with in-store promotion of safety messages on screen demonstrations and till receipt wallets.
And, of course, CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which has led on the creation of this advice, is a perfect example of the benefits of the partnership approach to protecting children online. Last year alone it helped to protect 414 children from some of the worst kinds of abuse and to arrest 513 suspects. Its education programme, ThinkUKnow, was seen over two million times by children across the UK;

Safer Internet day

It is Safer Internet Day tomorrow and this year it has the theme of connecting generations. There will be a huge focus on what parents and other family members can do to help keep children safe online.

This advice could be the difference between our kids harnessing the benefits of technology safely, or being exposed too early to its worst excesses. I have seen for myself that, working in partnership; UKCCIS can make a difference to children and young people’s online experiences.
The work of UKCCIS matters because it brings together some of the most powerful people and organisations in the industry today – and as always happens when individuals come together with real commitment, the sum ends up being greater than the parts. I know that I speak for Lynne Featherstone and Ed Vaizey as well when I say that we’re proud to work with you in making such a difference to children’s wellbeing and safety when they’re online.
As Sonia Livingstone recommended in her EU Kids Online study, there needs to be an ongoing and supported effort to educate parents and children about online safety.
We are launching the advice today as it is Safer Internet Day tomorrow, the ideal opportunity for you to begin using the advice, which has been created so that you can use it word for word, adapt it to your service or use it as a checklist against the advice you already provide.
We’re all looking to industry and to retailers to continue showing the way ahead in this. We urge you to continue to innovate, to help keep our children safe - and to maintain Britain’s place as a world leader in child internet safety.
Can I offer warm thanks to Peter and CEOP colleagues for all their hard work; to all of you who helped to make the advice clear, accurate and accessible; to Ofcom for hosting; and Virgin Media who are, I believe, about to offer us a glass of wine! Thank you.

For more information, get in touch:

Sherington Gaskin
Interim Aide to Associate Director Spectrum and Wireless
T 020 7331 2018
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