Long: Important to do everything possible to protect women and girls from online exploitation and abuse
Date published:
The Justice Minister has written to the UK Government encouraging action around commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls through adult services websites.
As telecommunications is a reserved matter, Naomi Long has contacted the Home Office Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls about the “deeply disturbing issue”.
The Minister said:
“I believe it is important to do everything possible to protect women and girls from life‑changing abuse. I am determined to maintain momentum in this area and where the evidence supports it, I would support the UK Government to advance legislation that reduces the facilitation of all forms of exploitation and abuse.”
In addition to a suite of measures Naomi Long has already introduced here to strengthen protections and modernise the response to harmful behaviours, further legislative reforms are underway including:
- Updating the existing offence of possessing a paedophile manual so that it explicitly captures AI‑generated material;
- New child sexual abuse image‑generator offences to criminalise those who make, adapt, possess, supply or offer to supply anything which is made or adapted to create, or facilitate the creation of child sexual abuse images;
- Bringing forward legislation to criminalise the creation and sharing of sexually explicit deepfake images of adults.
The Minister added:
“While the majority of victims of online sexual exploitation are women and girls, as Justice Minister I am unwavering in my commitment to protecting everyone from harm and to taking every possible step, within my power, to keeping those who are vulnerable safe from all forms of abuse and exploitation.”
Notes to editors:
- On 10 July 2024 a three-year Strategy which sets out Northern Ireland’s overarching framework for tackling slavery and human trafficking was published.
- Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK where the purchase of sexual services is a criminal offence.
- The introduction of the Online Safety Act 2023 marked a landmark step in protecting both children and adults from online harm across the United Kingdom. Ofcom, as the regulator is driving forward implementation through clear guidance and robust codes of practice for online platforms. Responsibility for the Act and telecommunications legislation rests with the UK Government.
- DoJ has introduced significant legislative reforms to strengthen protections and modernise the response to harmful behaviours: The creation of criminal offences such as upskirting, downblousing, and cyber‑flashing, new offences, unique to Northern Ireland, where adults pose as children for the purpose of sexual grooming and a strengthening of the law on the abuse of positions of trust, enhancing safeguards for young people against inappropriate and exploitative behaviour.
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