UK Government Watch

How the fuck are we expected to know how old she is?

The Drawings and computer-generated images of child sex abuse would be made illegal under proposals announced by Injustice Minister, Maria Eagle.

Owners of such images would face up to three years in prison under the plans.

Under the Obscene Publications Act it is illegal to possess photos of child abuse but it is legal to own drawings and computer-generated images.

Eagle spouted the usual bollox that the proposed move would help close a loophole that we believe paedophiles are using.

The plans are part of the government's response to a public consultation exercise carried out last year. The results have yet to be published.

A Ministry of Injustice spokeswoman said the authorities had noticed an increase in the existing availability of these images on the internet. If we do not address the issues these images raise now it is likely their availability will continue to grow. They are often advertised as a legitimate depiction of child sexual abuse.

Eagle said the plans were not about criminalising art or pornographic cartoons more generally, but about targeting obscene, and often very realistic, images of child sexual abuse which have no place in our society.

Kevin Brennan and Vernon Coaker have announced that the UK Council for Child Internet Safety will launch in September 2008, six months ahead of the recommended timescale set out by Dr Tanya Byron in her recent report .

A mixture of children'
s charities and industry will be informed about how they can join the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, which will be responsible for developing and leading a Child Internet Safety Strategy and advising Government on e-safety.

On 27th March the Government accepted all of Dr Byron'
s recommendations in full and today the Government is committing to a timescale outlining the next steps which are:

• Inviting stakeholders to join the Council – 14 May
• Cross Department Action Plan - end of June 2008
• Launch of the UK Council on Child Internet Safety – September 2008
• First Child Internet Safety Summit hosted by the Prime Minister - spring 2009.

Kevin Brennan Minister for Children and young people said:

We are inviting experts within industry and children'
s charities to come forward and provide their expertise and advice by joining the UK Council on Child Internet Safety. By developing an e-safety strategy together, we can help children to learn and play safe online whilst at the same time supporting parents to manage new pressures they face in a modern technological world.

These next steps show our commitment to acting on Dr Byron'
s recommendations with the same pace and strength that they were set out. By engaging across Government and industry we will provide a robust and coherent strategy within the outlined timeframe.

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge said:

The freedom the internet brings must be balanced by appropriate safeguards, and this ke recommendation from Dr Byron's landmark report will help children and parents safely enjoy the wealth of benefits that the internet can offer.

Video footage of vicious bare-knuckle fighting on a Bradford housing estate has been posted on the internet.

Half a dozen videos, condemned as absolutely reprehensible by community leaders, show blood-soaked teenagers going head-to-head in brawls in Holme Wood.

YouTube has now removed a number of the videos.

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe said he is due to meet YouTube bosses in his capacity as Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. He said: I will be raising the issue of these videos with YouTube. They should not be publicising this kind of thing. They have got to show more responsibility.

Tommy Hughes, Bradford Council's senior policy officer for safer communities, said: Bradford Council finds these videos absolutely reprehensible and we have already contacted YouTube get this material removed.

Other illegal activities, including footage of motorbikes pulling wheelies and cars performing hand-brake turns on residential streets in Bradford, have also been posted on Youtube.

Comedians and church leaders have claimed a victory for free speech after Government plans to ban jokes about homosexuals were rejected in the House of Lords.

Peers inflicted an overwhelming defeat on the Government by amending the Criminal Injustice Bill to protect the freedom of speech of comics, rap artists and those who criticise other people's sexuality.

The television stars Rowan Atkinson and Christopher Higgins, who is himself homosexual, are among the prominent figures to have spoken out against the proposal to create a new offence of incitement to “homophobic hatred”.

Following the amendment, the offence will apply only to those who incite violence or harassment against homosexual men and lesbians, rather than jokes or broader criticism about alternative lifestyles, such as lyrics in rap songs.

Religious groups had campaigned against the Government proposal, saying it would criminalise those who voiced concerns on a range of issues, from the teaching on sexual orientation in schools to depictions of homosexuality in film and television.

Peter Tatchell, the prominent homosexual rights campaigner, also spoke out against the measure, arguing that freedom of speech should be sacrosanct.

Peers backed the amendment, tabled by the former Conservative home secretary Lord Waddington, by 81 votes to 57. He was supported by the Labour peer Lord Clarke of Hampstead, who told their lordships that critics of homosexuality should be able to speak freely without risk of police action.

If it is accepted by MPs, the new freedom of speech protection would prevent prosecutions such as that currently under way against the Oxford University student, Sam Brown, arrested after he called a police horse “gay” during a drunken conversation with two mounted police officers.

Ministers are now considering whether to seek to fight the amendment when the Bill returns to the House of Commons.

A spokeswoman from the Ministry for Justice said: We are disappointed by the outcome of the vote in the Lords on Lord Waddington's amendment.

Campaigners say they are confident the amendment will not be thrown out, as the Government is keen to rush other measures contained in the Bill, including a ban on strike action in prisons, on to the statute books.

Tanya Byron was speaking to Paul Jackson of ELSPA:

I met Mr. Vaz and Giselle Pakeerah as part of the process and it was a difficult meeting that had to be handled sensitively and carefully. IT was, after all, the mother of a child who had been murdered.

I felt it was an important meeting, as I know Mr. Vaz has many criticisms of the games industry - and these are often reported widely and can be quite damaging for the industry. I talked to him about my positive experience of the industry – and my experience of ELSPA members in this room.

I think different people will pick up different elements of the report and that's fine – I've been surprised that it's met so many needs for so many people. But my biggest fear is that it will be used for currency – whether that's political or currency within the industry. I don't want that to happen.

...

That's not to say, however, that it's as simple as violent games making people violent. I've never said that, and would be sure to disagree with anyone who inferred that from the Review.

...Read full article

Home secretary Jacqui Smith has unveiled new plans to protect children from sex offenders on the internet.

Issuing new guidance for web users, Smith said social networking sites would be given the details of registered child sex offenders.

Websites such as Facebook and MySpace would be able to block offenders, who would face a prison term of up to five years if they failed to give police their email address.

The social networking guidance also provides advice for parents and businesses in how to protect children from online predators.

It recommended that other service providers, such as the Child Exploitation Online Protection Agency and the NSPCC, carry advice to allow users to report abuse.

It also called for industry to do more to report suspicious behaviour to the police and said that it should be made more difficult for users over the age of 18 to search for underage users.

Smith also launched a kitemark setting minimum standards for filtering software for home computers.

I want to see every child living their lives free from fear, whether they are meeting friends in a youth club or in a chat room, she said: We are working together with police, industry and charities to create a hostile environment for sex offenders on the internet and are determined to make it as hard for predators to strike online, as in the real world.

Dr Tanya Byron has told the biggest names in UK video games publishing that retailers persuaded her to give more power to the BBFC over PEGI.

Addressing ELSPA members in Portman Square, London at a closed meeting this morning, also attended by specially selected press, Byron said that retailers very strongly backed BBFC logos on the front of all games boxes to assist the with parental confusion at the point of sale.

However, publisher bosses such as EA UK general manager Keith Ramsdale, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves and SCE UK boss Ray Maguire showed their disagreement with the decision during a show of hands.

Despite largely positive soundings on the Review in general, when asked if they would prefer the current hybrid of BBFC and PEGI classification or one single ratings system, around 90% of ELSPA members opted for the latter.

Byron used the opportunity to praise the UK publishing sector and the manner in which it self-regulated prior to the Review and once again, Byron took the time to dismiss inaccurate reports that she recommended stricter penalties for retailers.

See full article from Mad

Retailers and wholesalers of video games in the UK have pledged to offer their support in implementing an age rating system for games, as recommended by Tanya Byron.

Speaking at a meeting today,The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) said its 200 members will adopt the main conclusions of the government-led study.

The ERA's members account for around 90% of packaged entertainment sales in the UK, a market it values at £5.3 billon which includes Game, HMV, Zavvi, Woolworths, WH Smith, Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys as well as many independents.

Facebook and other social networking sites would have to advertise the 999 emergency number on their pages under new Government guidelines to improve the safety of children online.

A copy of the draft guidance, obtained by the Telegraph, shows that the Home Office wants sites like Bebo and MySpace to display adverts for the emergency services to encourage children to call the police directly if they think they are being targeted by people who might be trying to abuse them.

It also suggests sites should take steps to make it more difficult for children to lie about their age and gain access to sites aimed at older users.

These could include offering free software which parents could download to enable them to restrict the websites children visit and the amount of time they spend on them.

In the first report by the Home Office into social networking sites, a powerful coalition of experts warn that children are at risk of online bullying, sexual "grooming" by paedophiles and online fraud.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, will publish the 73-page document on Friday, which also warns parents about anorexic websites which encourage teenage girls to compete to lose weight, and sites which promote self-harm and suicide.

It is understood that sites will be urged to set the default privacy settings of under-18s to "private" to prevent strangers accessing their profile pages. Currently, the default settings on many social networking sites are "open", allowing personal information to be shared with all users.

Most children and young people use the internet positively but sometimes behave in ways that may place them at risk, says the document, which has been drawn up by the Home Office's taskforce on online child protection in consultation with websites, mobile phone operators, children's charities, parent groups and academics.

Young people may also engage in behaviour that is risky to themselves including cyber-flirting and cyber-sex. These situations can quickly escalate to a point where they may lose control.

Parents will be issued with an eight-point guide on how to ensure that their children use social networking sites safely. They will be urged to discuss with their offspring the dangers of flirting online and meeting strangers they have encountered on the internet. They will also be encouraged to contact the police immediately if they suspect that their children are being "groomed" by online predators.

See full article from the Guardian

Millions of children are using social networking websites intended for older users, according to a study by the media regulator, Ofcom.

Research into internet use has found that, among children with internet access, more than a quarter of eight to 11-year-olds claimed to have a profile page on a social networking website. This is despite nominal age restrictions aimed at preventing pre-teens from using such sites.

MySpace, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, says its users should be at least 14 to register, while Facebook and Bebo claim an age limit of 13.

The study, commissioned by the regulator's media literacy unit, surveyed more than 7,000 adults and children around the UK.

It outlined a disparity between the perception of social networking among adults and children. While 65% of parents said they set rules for the way their children used social networking sites, only half of children said their families had laid down restrictions. A further 43% said their parents placed no limits on what they could use sites for.

The use of the internet by children is something of a hot political topic at the moment. As well as the Byron review, the home secretary is due to unveil a series of reforms later this week that are aimed at increasing safety for children online. These are believed to include a voluntary code of good conduct for websites.

The Byron Report suggests a timetable for changes in classification

By Autumn 2008:

• Consultation on changes to classification system underpinned by clear plans for potential legislative change
• Industry commits to develop minimum standards for parental controls
• Campaign to raise awareness of age ratings and parental controls underway
• Retailers make improvements to in-store information
• UK Council for Child Internet Safety establishes sub-group on online gaming
  Industry and classification bodies commit to develop single set of standards for managing safety in online games

By Spring 2009:

• BBFC and PEGI agree and publish standards for managing safety in online games
• Research into role of video game advertising on underage game play completed
• Industry guidelines on advertising of video games produced

By Summer 2010:

• Changes to classification system in place
• Ongoing monitoring and enforcement of sales of age-rated video games.
• Government identifies ways for game based learning to be evaluated in different educational environments