Source: Ministry of Justice published on this site Tuesday 16 April 2024 by Jill Powell

Despicable people who create sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’ will face prosecution under a new law announced by the government today (16 April 2024).

Under the new offence, those who create these horrific images without consent face a criminal record and an unlimited fine. If the image is then shared more widely offenders could be sent to jail.

The new law will mean that if someone creates a sexually explicit deepfake, even if they have no intent to share it but purely want to cause alarm, humiliation or distress to the victim, they will be committing a criminal offence.

It will also strengthen existing offences, as if a person both creates this kind of image and then shares it, the CPS could charge them with two offences, potentially leading to their sentence being increased.

This offence will apply to images of adults. This is because the law already covers this behaviour where the image is of a child (under the age of 18).

Deepfake images have become more prevalent in recent years, with images being viewed millions of times a month across the world. The fake images and videos are made to look hyper-realistic with the victim usually unaware and unable to give their consent to being sexualised in such a way.

Today’s announcement is the latest step in a huge programme of work aimed at tackling this emerging and deeply distressing form of abuse against abuse towards women and girls.

Last year, reforms in the Online Safety Act criminalised the sharing of ‘deepfake’ intimate images for the first time. This new offence, which will be introduced through an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, will mean anyone who makes these sexually explicit deepfake images of adults maliciously and without consent will face the consequences of their actions.

Minister for Victims and Safeguarding, Laura Farris, said: 

“The creation of deepfake sexual images is despicable and completely unacceptable irrespective of whether the image is shared.

“It is another example of ways in which certain people seek to degrade and dehumanise others - especially women. And it has the capacity to cause catastrophic consequences if the material is shared more widely. This government will not tolerate it.

“This new offence sends a crystal clear message that making this material is immoral, often misogynistic, and a crime.”

The government has made it a priority to better protect women from physical, emotional and online abuse through changes to the law.

As part of the Criminal Justice Bill, which continues its passage through Parliament, the government is also creating a range of new criminal offences to punish those who take or record intimate images without consent - or install equipment to enable someone to do so.

These changes in the Criminal Justice Bill will build on the existing ‘upskirting’ offence, making it a criminal offence to intentionally take or record an intimate image or film without consent or a reasonable belief in consent take or record an intimate image or film without consent and with intent to cause alarm, distress or humiliation; or for the purpose of sexual gratification

The government has also re-classified violence against women and girls as a national threat, meaning the police must prioritise their response to it, just as they do with threats like terrorism - as well as ongoing work to tackle image-based abuse.

In March the first person was sentenced under the new Cyberflashing offence, which came into force in January via the Online Safety Act. Nicholas Hawkes, who was 39 at the time of sentencing, sent images of his genitals to a 15-year-old girl and a woman, and received a sentence of more than a year in prison.

In 2022, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 was amended to extend voyeurism offences to cover non-consensual images of breastfeeding.

As part of wider government work to protect women and girls, cowards who kill their partners with sexual violence will face longer behind bars. A new statutory aggravating factor will be brought in for offenders who cause death through abusive, degrading or dangerous sexual behaviour – or so-called ‘rough sex’.

A new statutory aggravating factor for bitter former partners who murder at the end of a relationship is also in the Criminal Justice Bill, as part of reforms following recommendations made in Clare Wade KC’s Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review.

Source: RCPCH published on this website Friday 12 April 2024 by Jill Powell

An Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People was commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement in Autumn 2020 to make recommendations about the services provided by the NHS to children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender incongruence or dysphoria. 

• The final report focuses on the following areas:  
• The approach taken by Dr Cass and the review team to draw together the final recommendations
• The history of services for children and young people with gender dysphoria, including changing demographics and referral rate data over time to provide context to the report
• Understanding the current cohort of children and young people who are seeking NHS support for gender dysphoria, their needs, and any key drivers to the increase in referrals
• Clinical approaches and clinical management of gender dysphoria and gender related distress, including the purpose, benefits, and outcomes of clinical interventions in the pathway. This includes the use of hormones and how to support more complex presentations
• The service delivery model, workforce requirements, pathways of care into the specialist service, further development of the evidence base and how to embed continuous clinical improvement and research into the new service.

You can read the final Cass Review recommendations.
 
RCPCH will now take the time to review the recommendations made by Dr Cass in full, consider our role to play and identify the needs of our members in order to support the provision of high quality, safe, timely and effective care, with the following principles in mind:

Children and young people with gender incongruence or dysphoria must receive the same standards of clinical care, assessment and treatment as every other child or young person accessing health services. As with any other healthcare service, children should be given the opportunity to express what matters to them, and that this is taken into account by healthcare practitioners. This includes the use of pronouns and gender identifiers in line with the child’s wishes, as set out in the NICE Guideline on Babies, children and young people’s experiences of care [1.2.1]. Read more on what LGBTQ+ young people have told us about this.

The NHS must deliver a quality health service for this group of patients. As we would expect with any other child health service, this should be timely, high-quality, safe, equitable and effective, and consider each child’s mental and physical health needs in parity. It is important to consider that this group of children and young people has been waiting a long time to access specialist care, and as a result their health needs may be more complex. 

With the publication of this review on gender identity services, there is a wider opportunity for the NHS to consider how well health services as a whole are meeting the needs of adolescents, and whether services are working in a joined-up, equitable and timely way for this age group. We encourage the NHS to identify and use opportunities that may come through the implementation of this review to consider the needs of all young people.

RCPCH members already see children who are gender questioning or experiencing gender dysphoria in a whole range of healthcare settings. Data collected by Dr Cass in 2021 has shown us that the confidence of paediatricians and GPs to support this group fell below the sample in comparison to other healthcare professionals. This highlights that there is a need for NHSE, with input from relevant specialties, to develop and deliver training to paediatricians and GPs to build confidence and support them in utilising their existing skills to provide timely, safe, effective, and high-quality care for this group, while undertaking their role in the new model of care and providing support for children and young people who face long waiting times to access specialist services. 

The lack of data and research in this healthcare space is a significant barrier to effective commissioning, and therefore to improving outcomes for children and young people who are gender questioning or experiencing gender dysphoria. The health system must get better at capturing data on children's health and care needs, their interactions with health services, and their outcomes over time, in order to deliver effective and evidence-based care. This is particularly true for under-researched areas of healthcare provision, such as pathways of care for children who are experiencing gender dysphoria. Healthcare commissioners, providers and researchers have a duty to future generations to improve the understanding of all the interventions available to support those who are gender questioning or experiencing gender dysphoria, in order to improve the efficacy and safety of the care that paediatricians provide to this group. 

Source: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published on this website Monday 15 April 2024 by Jill Powell

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is calling on social media and video-sharing platforms to improve their data protection practices so children are safer when using their services. This comes as the regulator sets out its 2024-2025 priorities for protecting children's personal information online.

Since the introduction of its Children’s code of practice in 2021, the ICO has been working with online services including websites, apps and games to provide better privacy protections for children, ensuring their personal information is used appropriately within the digital world. There has been significant progress and many organisations have started to assess and mitigate the potential privacy risks to children on their platforms.

The new Children’s code strategy builds on the progress to date and sets out the priority areas social media and video-sharing platforms need to improve on in the coming year, as well as how the ICO will continue to enforce the law and drive conformance with the code by industry.

John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner states:

“Children’s privacy must not be traded in the chase for profit. How companies design their online services and use children’s personal information have a significant impact on what young people see and experience in the digital world.

“Seven out of ten children told us that they trust our Children’s code to make the internet better and safer for them. That’s why our determination to ensure online services are privacy-friendly for children is stronger than ever.

“I’m calling on social media and video-sharing platforms to assess and understand the potential data harms to children on their platforms, and to take steps to mitigate them.”

Source: BBC published on this website Thursday 11 April 2024 by Jill Powell

Gwyn Loader writes

A Welsh abbey has commissioned an independent review into alleged historical child sex abuse.

The inquiry will be led by Jan Pickles, former assistant police and crime commissioner at South Wales Police.

It was announced by Father Jan Rossey, superior at Caldey Island Abbey.

Kevin O'Connell has campaigned since 2019 for an inquiry into allegations he and others were abused on Caldey, a small island off the coast of Tenby, Pembrokeshire.

He said the announcement was a "start", and that it had come about due to his years of campaigning and the work of the Caldey Island Survivors' Campaign, which he founded.

The former deputy children's commissioner for Wales, Maria Battle, is the safeguarding lead for the inquiry.

Ms Battle said it was now in the process of "awaiting outcomes".

"We will recommend that the findings will be made public," she said, adding that the hope of Father Jan is "to hear from anyone affected".

"In common with many other organisations, Caldey Abbey has, in the past, received disclosures and allegations involving members of the monastic community about their behaviour towards children," Father Jan said.

"We remain dedicated to providing a secure environment with effective procedures for safeguarding all who visit, live on, or work on the island."