Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “This strategy is an important step in our shared ambition to end violence against women and girls. I’m pleased to see many of my recommendations included, especially a new network of ‘Child Houses’, which are hugely valuable services bringing highly skilled professionals together under one roof to care for child victims of abuse and give them a voice.
“I’m also delighted to see a move to ban nudification tools as I have pushed for, which strip people naked in images against their will. There is simply no reason for these tools to exist and I’m grateful to the government for responding decisively to this growing threat in children’s lives.
“The focus on evidence-based relationships education that addresses the realities of teenagers’ lives today is welcome, as is the move to prioritise better training for teachers and experts to shape children’s views early on – but this must be done with sensitivity, without demonising young boys or pitting them against girls.
“However, I remain deeply concerned that too much of this strategy will only protect girls who are 16 or over. We need robust data measures to see if the strategy is working, but this cannot be at the expense of listening and responding to the risks facing every girl from a young age.”
Background information:
- The Children’s Commissioner previously spoke on the move to introduce a new national network of Child Houses.
- The office has also published a series of recommendations on protecting children from the risks associated with Generative AI, including a ban on bespoke nudifying apps.
- The Commissioner, while welcoming the commitment to ban these tools, now urges the government to go further by requiring companies to embed transformative new technology that can detect nudity on all devices owned by children, known as HarmBlockAI. Today’s strategy recognises the power of this technology but does not go as far as making its inclusion on child-owned devices mandatory.
