Are we doing enough to educate our children about the consequences of indecent image sharing?
As a lawyer and teacher, I believe that law has an important role to play in educating children about what is right and wrong.
I have been asked by an increasing number of schools to support them and their students with their statutory RSE programmes on relationships and sex education specifically to understand the law around indecent image sharing.
I am now delivering an online/in school workshop on this subject. By using a legal approach, I eschew any social awkwardness or cultural reservations and quickly get to the heart of the matter. I make it clear that the law is there to protect young people not criminalise them. I make it clear that I want to normalise conversations in this area, help safeguard children and reduce the incidence of indecent image sharing.
The timing of this workshop is poignant as there has never been a greater need for education to prevent harmful sexual behaviour by young people
A new report this month from the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme and National Police Chiefs’ Council set out publicly for the first time a clear, detailed picture of reported Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) crimes in 2022 across England and Wales. It makes for sobering reading.
Some of the key findings include:
- there were around 107,000 CSAE offences reported in 2022. In 2013, the police recorded just over 20,000 CSAE crimes.
- over half of the CSAE offences involved children (aged 10-17) with 14 being the most common age. This figure was 33% a decade ago.
- the number of recorded incidents of online sexual abuse & exploitation continues to grow and it now accounts for 32% of CSAE cases. The vast majority of these offences relate to indecent images of children (IIOC).
- perpetrators of IIOC offences up to the age of 17 account for 64% of online offending. In one case, a four-year-old was referred to the police for uploaded images of a sibling.
These are appalling statistics and the rise in child-on-child-online abuse is very worrying.
It’s truly shocking that the majority of reported sexual crimes against children (52%) were committed by other children. These included 8,020 child-on-child sexual assaults and 6,813 rapes and 15,534 cases of indecent images created and shared by under-18s.
The cause for these grim statistics is online pornography which has insinuated itself into children’s lives since the smartphone’s ubiquity a few years ago. The normalisation of violent online pornography impairs relationships and mental health and amounts to a public health concern.
I am concerned that too many young people believe that the creation and sharing of indecent images is normal/expected behaviour and has no legal consequences.
I am keen to share with young people in an age-appropriate way what their online activities might lead to and the different kinds of interactions to avoid.
In my workshop, I set out 10 key reflections for children to consider if they are contemplating image sharing.
They include the following:
The Law on indecent image sharing
Under the Protection of Children Act 1978 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988, it is against the law to take, make, show or distribute or possess an ‘indecent’ image or video of a child under the age of 18. This includes a young person sharing images or videos of themselves or of their peers (under 18). It is no defence that the young person either consented to the image being taken or took the picture themselves.
The law also covers the creation and distribution of pseudo imagery which is defined as an image that has been edited to create a sexual image predominantly of a child, such as by placing parts of a child’s appearance on an existing sexual image.
Consent
The topic of asking, giving and receiving consent online can be very challenging- young people can say yes to sharing something online without wanting to.
In general terms, consent must be given willingly and freely- it must be an active choice. It must be informed and voluntary. You cannot consent when you are feeling scared, coerced, pressured or incapacitated. It cannot be seen as a permanent choice- you can change your mind!
Until very recently, there was no single criminal offence in England and Wales that governed the taking, making and sharing of intimate images without consent. Instead, there was a patchwork of offences, most of which existed before the rise of the internet and use of smartphones.
The law relating to consent in this area was far from satisfactory. For example, it failed to cover certain key behaviours such as. ‘downblousing’ (where an image is taken down, underneath or inside clothing without consent) and deepfakes (sharing altered images).
Under the Online Safety Act (which received its royal assent in October last year), a series of new criminal offences were introduced.
It is now a crime to share (or threaten to share) an intimate image of someone without their consent
The definition of “intimate” focuses on what is shown in the image, not what the person was wearing or doing when it was taken. This means that “upskirting” and “downblousing” images) will be covered plus it will extend to deepfakes and images that have been ‘nudified’.
This law is not yet in place but it’s implementation will close many loopholes in this area.
The meaning of ‘indecent’
The term ‘indecent image’ is not defined in legislation. Case law suggests that it will be deemed ‘indecent’ if it meets one of the following criteria
- nude or semi-nude sexual posing such as displaying genitals and/or breasts, or overtly sexual images of young people in their underwear;
- someone nude or semi-nude who’s touching themselves or another person in a sexual way;
- any sexual activity involving a child (under 18);
- someone hurting someone else sexually;
Misconceptions
In my workshop, we go through a series of games and activities aimed at gently addressing and challenging students’ misconceptions in this area.
Of course, one of the biggest misconceptions is that exchanging youth-generated sexual images is a normal and expected part of a relationship and, moreover, it’s legal.
There are many other misconceptions.
For example, the term ‘making’ indecent images under the Protection of Children Act 1978 is often misunderstood. It doesn’t mean an individual ‘made’ or ‘took’ the original image- it involves the viewing of an image which results in the image being downloaded to the device on which it is viewed.
The ‘making’ of the image can also happen automatically sometimes when a device visits a web page on which indecent images of children are visible. Even accessing a pornographic website where an indecent image ‘pops up’ can constitute ‘making’ indecent images.
As you can imagine, information of this sort can make young people think twice about their online actions.
What will the police do?
If the police are notified of a report of youth-generated sexual imagery,they will record it as a crime.
They will make an initial assessment of what is known, what has happened and the impact on the victim so they can ensure the safety of the young people involved.
They will aim to take a common sense approach that doesn’t criminalise the children unnecessarily. The National Police Chiefs’ Council has made it clear that they will always seek to take a safeguarding approach and only look to prosecute in rare circumstances.
The police may decide to launch a full investigation (which could lead to a criminal prosecution) if there were aggravating circumstances, for example, coercion, a profit motive, a malicious intent. The absence of any consent by the victim will be a significant factor.
If there are no aggravating factors, the police will be keen to avoid criminalising the perpetrators and may issue a ‘Outcome 21 disposal’- which acknowledges that it’s not in the public interest to take any further action.
In the event of aggravating factors and a successful prosecution follows, the punishments will range from a custodial sentence of four years (for the severe cases) to high-level community orders for the less serious offences. Any person found guilty of an offence regarding indecent images, will be required by law (even if they are under 18) to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Online Safety Act 2023
As you will have already seen in this article, this Act should provide children with much better protection from online harm.
The new offence of indecent image sharing without consent will soon be implemented.
Meanwhile, social media platforms will have a duty of care to be more responsible for user safety and they must take steps to protect young people from accessing content that is illegal and harmful. Online service providers will need to implement age verification checks for users. The Act will not take effect until certain steps have been taken but it’s goal to make the UK the safest place for a child to be online is laudable.
My workshop also looks at other key areas such as your digital footprint and privacy
In conclusion, as young people are getting access to smartphones and other electronic devices at younger and younger ages, the cases of indecent images being created and shared by under-18s is likely to rise.
We all have a responsibility to act now. This cannot remain a taboo subject. We all need to talk to children about their online activities and explain the importance of privacy.
We need to do more to prevent young people from becoming victims and perpetrators of crime.
Please contact us for further information about this article or if you would like to book my workshop on indecent image sharing. You can find out more information on our legal workshops here.