Encrypted messaging puts young at greater risk of exploitation, report warns

Plans by social media firms for more encryption in messaging services would place children at greater risk of exploitation and abuse, the Children’s Commissioner for England has warned.

In a new report, Anne Longfield said end-to-end encryption, which hides messages from everyone except those in a conversation, made it impossible for platforms to monitor content and prevents the police from gathering potentially vital evidence of child sexual exploitation.

The report, called Access Denied: How end-to-end encryption threatens children’s safety online, suggests that nine out of 10 children aged between eight and 17 are using messaging services, meaning millions of young people in the UK were potentially at risk.

Ms Longfield said encrypted messaging meant it was harder to detect grooming and alert law enforcement agencies when needed, meaning some of the most serious crimes against children could potentially stay hidden.

Concerns over the widening use of encryption have been triggered by Facebook’s previously announced plans to fully encrypt communications in its Messenger app, as well as its Instagram Direct messaging service.

The social network’s other messaging platform, WhatsApp, is already fully encrypted.

Ms Longfield has called on the Government to introduce its delayed online harms legislation in 2021 and include strong sanctions to punish those who fail to protect their users.

The Children’s Commissioner also called for more to be done to prevent children from accessing platforms and services when they are below the age requirements after the report found more than a third of those aged between eight and 10, and more than half of 11 to 13-year-olds admitted they had lied about their age to sign up to a messaging service.

“This report reveals the extent to which online messaging is a part of the daily lives of the vast majority of children from the age of eight,” Ms Longfield said.

“It shows how vigilant parents need to be but also how the tech giants are failing to regulate themselves and so are failing to keep children safe.

“The widespread use of end-to-end encryption could put more children at risk of grooming and exploitation and hamper the efforts of those who want to keep children safe.

“It has now been 18 months since the Government published its Online Harms White Paper and yet little has happened since, while the threat to children’s safety increases.

“It’s time for the Government to show it hasn’t lost its nerve and that it is prepared to stand up to the powerful internet giants, who are such a big part in our children’s lives. Ministers can show they mean business by promising to introduce legislation in 2021 and getting on with the job of protecting children from online harms.”

According to the report, more than a third of children say they have received a message that made them feel uncomfortable, and nearly one in 10 said they had used a messaging app to talk to strangers.

It makes a series of other recommendations to the Government over how to better protect young people online, including ensuring tech giants are prevented from implementing new features if they cannot demonstrate how they will not increase the risk for younger users, and not introducing end-to-end encryption on the accounts of children.

It also calls for the proposed duty of care in the Online Harms legislation to cover “private communications” and therefore those which are fully encrypted.

Simone Vibert, senior policy analyst for the Children’s Commissioner and author of the report, said: “Messaging services play an important role in children’s lives, helping them to keep in touch with family and friends.

“But there is a more sinister side to these platforms. This research shows that hundreds of thousands of children are using messaging apps to contact strangers, including sharing images and photos, and that they are receiving messages back which make them feel uncomfortable.

“The fact that there are age limits on these apps shows that the tech giants themselves are aware of the risks, and yet most do very little, if anything, to reliably check the age of their users. Our research shows a majority of children are using a messaging app which they aren’t old enough to be using.

“It is yet more evidence of the need for a statutory duty of care on online platforms, including messaging apps.”

Responding to the report, a Home Office spokesperson said: “We welcome this report which adds to the ever-growing body of evidence outlining that by implementing end-to-end encryption, tech companies will be blinding themselves and law enforcement to the sickening child abuse happening on their platforms.

“The Government is very clear that it supports strong encryption, protecting privacy and keeping data secure online, but it must not be at the expense of the safety of some of the most vulnerable in society.”