THIS week, assistant director for NSPCC North East, Yorkshire and Humber Debra Radford is making an important appeal to the people who are potentially days away from running our country.
Both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have connections with our region, as former West Yorkshire resident and current North Yorkshire MP respectively.
There is arguably no more important responsibility than protecting our children from abuse and, as prospective Prime Ministers, they both have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help ensure children across the UK can be safer from online grooming and abuse.
Read more: BBC Look North presenter Carol Malia forced off air due to cough
The online threat to children has risen dramatically in the four years we have been campaigning for a robust and effective Online Safety Bill. Every day that the introduction of the bill is delayed represents 12 children in the region who could become victims of abuse or online grooming.
Across Yorkshire and the Humber, online grooming offences have risen in the last four years by 63 per cent. Nationally, over that same period, that figure has increased by 84 per cent.
I’ve mentioned the bill on many occasions before, but it’s such an important piece of legislation and so close to improving safeguarding for a generation of children, that I am unapologetic about bringing it up again, as it has been delayed until at least the autumn when a new Prime Minister is in place.
To get more stories from Darlington direct to your email basket go here
The threat to children has increased. The demand for child abuse images has risen, and abusers continue to find new ways to exploit online platforms which were not developed with children’s safety as an essential element.
The NSPCC believes the Online Safety Bill can change that. Allowing the tech industry to self-regulate has demonstrably failed. Without urgent legislative action, even more children and families will face the unimaginable trauma of child sexual abuse and grooming, and the life-changing consequences of inherently preventable harm.
Whoever is named the next Prime Minister will be granted an opportunity to break this cycle of harm, and to protect children and families from appalling abuse.
The disturbing reality is that every single day sees more children groomed on their smartphones and tablets, contacted by abusers and coerced into the most appalling acts of online sexual abuse.
The NSPCC believes the Online Safety Bill is the best chance we have to disrupt this entirely preventable abuse, and stop social networks being used as a conveyor belt of harm.
The bill has overwhelming public support too.
YouGov research for the NSPCC found that more than four fifths of UK adults think the Online Safety Bill should deliver strong and comprehensive measures to protect children from online child sexual abuse.
We believe the Online Safety Bill can represent the best of our political system, with Government, Parliament and civil society working together to build strong and world-leading protections for children.
Children and families in Yorkshire and across the country need the strong progression of the Online Safety Bill to continue.
They need the next Prime Minister to redouble their efforts to protect our children from harm, and deliver the commitment made in the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto to deliver the new legislation needed to tackle online harms and turn the tide on sexual abuse.
A robust Online Safety Bill can reinforce the UK’s global leadership on child protection, and by ensuring a swift passage for it, the next Prime Minister can protect children and families from unimaginable and wholly unacceptable abuse.
Children and families in Yorkshire and across the country deserve a Prime Minister who will do all they can to ensure the UK becomes the safest place in the world to be online, and the NSPCC believes the Online Safety Bill is the best way to make that happen.
Read next:
- Banned Darlington driver behind bars following crime spree
- Sunak vs Truss: what we learned from Darlington hustings
- How North East suicide charity benefitted from Newsquest grant scheme
If you want to read more great stories, why not subscribe to your Northern Echo for as little as £1.25 a week. Click here
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here