End-to-end encryption ‘puts children at greater risk of exploitation’

Plans by social media firms for more messaging encryption would put children at risk, England’s children’s commissioner has said.

Anne Longfield says end-to-end encryption, which hides messages from everyone except those in a conversation, makes it impossible for platforms to monitor content and prevents the police from gathering evidence of child sexual exploitation.

Her report – Access Denied: How End-To-End Encryption Threatens Children’s Safety Online – suggests nine out of 10 children aged between eight and 17 are using messaging services, meaning millions could be at risk.

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 talked with strangers on a messaging app.

Facebook has previously announced plans to fully encrypt communications in its Messenger app and its Instagram messaging service. WhatsApp is already fully encrypted.

Ms Longfield said: “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.”

She called on the government to require that tech firms demonstrated any new features will not increase the risk to children, and also that children’s accounts should not have end-to-end encryption.

Simone Vibert, senior policy analyst for the children’s commissioner and author of the report, said: “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.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “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.”

A spokesperson for Facebook said: “Child exploitation and grooming have no place on our platforms.

“Facebook has led the industry in developing new ways to prevent, detect, and respond to abuse and we will continue to work with law enforcement to combat criminal activity,” they added.

“End-to-end encryption is already the leading technology used by many services to keep people safe and, when we roll it out on our other messaging services, we will build on our strong anti-abuse capabilities at WhatsApp,” they said.

“For example, through a combination of advanced technology and user reports, WhatsApp bans around 250,000 accounts each month suspected of sharing child exploitative imagery.”

(c) Sky News 2020: End-to-end encryption ‘puts children at greater risk of exploitation’