PCC backs proposed new laws to protect children from online predators

Police and Crime Commissioner Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts has written to the Home Office to voice her strong support for proposed legislative changes to tackle new AI (artificial intelligence) child sexual abuse offences.

The Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner, who is also Joint Lead for Economic and Cyber Crime for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' (APCC), has written to MP Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, to endorse new measures announced in the Crime and Policing Bill which seek to criminalise AI models that have been optimised to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

It comes as the UK marks National Child Exploitation Awareness Day (18 March) - an annual campaign highlighting the issues around child exploitation and calling on the world to unite to eradicate it from society.

In her letter, Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts highlighted an ongoing case in South Derbyshire involving an offender found in possession of prohibited images of children on his computer that appeared to be generated by an AI software model. Such models are not currently illegal in the UK.

Under proposals progressing through Parliament, a new criminal offence would be introduced criminalising AI models that have been optimised to create CSAM to ensure there are no safe spaces for offenders to network and facilitate child sexual abuse.

Additionally, existing laws would be updated criminalising ‘paedophile manuals' to cover Artificially Generated (AI) CSAM to reflect the evolving nature of online child sexual abuse.

Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts said the South Derbyshire case and other cases in our country and across the world underscored the urgent need for the legislative changes being brought by the Government and would provide the police with the necessary tools to combat such crimes more effectively, crucially bringing more offenders to justice.

She also pressed the Minister for a timeline on when she expected the changes to become law, inviting a meeting alongside APCC colleagues to discuss the measures and explore further ways of working together in the future.

Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts said: "I strongly welcome the proposed legislative changes proceeding through Parliament. As the recent local case shows, we must act with decisiveness and urgency on this critical issue to close current loopholes that are allowing these offenders to exploit the justice system and facilitate heinous crimes that serve to normalise the sexual abuse of children and increase the volume of material available.

"Proudly, the UK has become the first country in the world to create new AI sexual abuse offences. We must continue to do everything possible to protect children on and offline and better respond to these emerging crimes. With new laws in place, police will have stronger powers to expose these vile abusers and bring them to justice."