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Half of social workers 'struggle to recognise signs of online child sex grooming' Microsoft introduces child abuse search pop-up warnings
(about 3 hours later)
Many social workers find it difficult to cope with online grooming and the sexual abuse of the children they are meant to protect, new research has revealed. Microsoft has introduced a pop-up warning on its Bing search engine that tells UK internet users that they are searching for illegal child abuse images.
A survey of social workers revealed that half of them said they did not know how to recognise the signs of online sexual abuse of children, while more than two-thirds of social workers felt they needed more support with child protection cases involving online abuse. The company said on Saturday that anyone using the engine to search for such material will trigger the Bing notification platform message warning, which tells them they are looking for illegal content and provides a link to a counselling service.
The survey, carried out by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and children's charity the NSPCC, questioned 327 social workers online in May about their experiences. The move comes after David Cameron this week threatened to impose tough new laws on internet service providers if they fail to blacklist key search terms for abusive images by October.
And although almost half (49%) said a quarter of their sexual abuse cases now involve some form of online abuse, 30% said they did not feel confident dealing with child protection sexual abuse cases using the internet. A Microsoft spokesman said: "If someone in the UK tries to use search terms on Bing which can only indicate they are looking for illegal child abuse content, they will activate the Bing notification platform, which will produce an on-screen notification telling them that child abuse content is illegal.
A third (34%) of social workers surveyed said they did not feel confident about understanding the language used by young people online, and 47% said they did not know how young people communicate via social networking sites. "The notification will also contain a link to Stopitnow.org who will be able to provide them with counselling."
NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: "Keeping children safe from sexual abuse increasingly means protecting them from offenders who use technology to target their victims, such as grooming in chatrooms or online social networks. Microsoft said it already has a policy of removing links to illegal content as soon as possible.
"And vulnerable young people are now being coerced into sharing explicit images of themselves via mobile phone messages and apps. It's worrying that the majority of social workers surveyed by BASW are struggling to understand how online child abuse happens." Meanwhile, a survey of social workers found that many struggle to deal with the online grooming and the sexual abuse of the children they are meant to protect.
Wanless said the NSPCC had developed a training tool – 'Keeping children safe online' – to educate child protection professionals about the risks the internet can pose to children. The study by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and children's charity the NSPCC showed that almost half the 327 staff surved did not know how to recognise the signs of online sexual abuse of children, while more than two-thirds felt they needed more support in tackling online abuse cases.
BASW professional officer Nushra Mansuri said: "The number of cases in which the internet plays a part in the grooming and abuse of children is rising, and social workers need to be equipped to recognise the warning signs. Although almost half (49%) said a quarter of their sexual abuse cases now involve some form of online abuse, 30% said they did not feel confident dealing with child protection sexual abuse cases using the internet.
"Social work educators and employers must keep pace with new technology, and training on the risks posed by social media should be an intrinsic part of learning." A third (34%) of social workers surveyed said they did not feel confident about understanding the language used by young people online, and 47% said they did not know how young people communicate via social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Meanwhile, Microsoft announced that users of their Bing search engine in the UK who type in search terms related to child sex abuse will get a pop-up screen warning of the illegality of child abuse material. NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: "Vulnerable young people are now being coerced into sharing explicit images of themselves via mobile phone messages and apps. It's worrying that the majority of social workers surveyed by BASW are struggling to understand how online child abuse happens."
BASW professional officer Nushra Mansuri said: "The number of cases in which the internet plays a part in the grooming and abuse of children is rising, and social workers need to be equipped to recognise the warning signs."