To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to protect (a) children and (b) adults from (i) online and (ii) other forms of grooming.
Protecting children and young people from all forms of abuse is a priority for the Scottish Government, as set out in current national policy and legislation. We are committed to working with partners nationally, locally and with support services.
Internet safety is largely a reserved matter, any decisions on the regulation of the internet is currently a matter for the UK Government. However, Scottish Ministers do have significant scope to develop and implement policy relating to child internet safety as a direct result of their devolved responsibility for education, policing and child protection.
In April 2017, we published a National Action Plan on Internet Safety for Children and Young People to help protect children and young people online. This includes actions to help children and young people develop the necessary skills to stay safe while using the internet, and to support parents and carers to be more aware of the potential risks. The Action Plan sets out our commitment to continue to work with digital and social media providers to ensure children are not exposed to harm.
We are working with partners to encourage safe, responsible use of the internet including endorsing the 5Rights coalition which promotes the rights of children and young people online and in digital technologies.
We are also taking action to tackle child sexual exploitation and child trafficking. In March 2016 we published an update of the National Action Plan to Prevent and Tackle Child Sexual Exploitation and a recent progress report, published in April this year, can be found online at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/04/6944 , demonstrating the range of work taken forward over the last year, across government and locally to progress the actions within the plan .
In addition, have established an expert group for preventing sexual offending involving children and young people, including online crime. It brings together professional and academic expertise from across justice, education, child protection, health and the third sector to identify actions to better prevent sexual crime involving children and young people and mitigate the harm it causes. It will build on existing good work across Government and through partners.
We recognise the importance of early identification and intervention to prevent online abuse and further online abuse. We are funding Stop it Now! Scotland to develop a prevention toolkit to help identify risk and prevent abuse before it occurs.
The Scottish Government is committed to a review of Personal and Social Education to examine, among other things, how the issue of sexual consent is taught within relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education at all stages. The review is expected to conclude in 2018.
Parents and carers play a crucial role in empowering and supporting children to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively - by ensuring an open dialogue with their children, educating them, and acting as digital role models. Education Scotland refreshed the Technologies curriculum in 2017, which included the addition of cyber resilience and internet safety.
The Scottish Government provided £34,244 to Young Scot’s Digi, Aye? campaign. Working collaboratively with young people and using the social media channels most relevant to them, this targeted campaign aimed to help increase cyber awareness among young people in Scotland, and we hope that the Digi, Aye? website will continue to provide an excellent online resource.
There are a range of protective orders that can be used to protect both child and adult victims and the public from those seeking to exploit and abuse others. These include Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Orders (TEPOs) and Trafficking and Exploitation Risk Orders (TEROs) which are provided for in the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 and Sexual Offence Prevention Orders (SOPOs) under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and Risk of Sexual Harm Orders (RSHOs) under the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005.
The Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 will, when commenced, introduce new preventative orders in Scotland, namely Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and Sexual Risk Orders. These orders simplify and rationalise the existing system of civil orders available to protect communities from those who may commit sex offences:
- Sexual Harm Prevention Orders - a post-conviction order which replaces the Sexual Offences Prevention Order and Foreign Travel Order under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and can apply to those convicted of a relevant sexual offence; and
- Sexual Risk Orders - a non-conviction order which replaces the Risk of Sexual Harm Order under the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005, and can apply to any individual who poses a risk of sexual harm.
These changes address the concerns of professionals, including the police, that the use and effectiveness of the existing orders could be improved to better protect the public from sexual harm.