In last five years, I have made the offline and online worlds safer for young people. I pushed for changes to child criminal exploitation laws to protect all children equally and strengthened the Victims Code. I uncovered widespread failings in use of strip searches leading to changes to guidance and training – and driving down use by police.
My research into online harms has led the debate and secured greater protections, such as revealing that more than a quarter (27%) of young people who had seen pornography said they had seen it online by 11. I have also produced guidance on screen-time for under 5s and am working on advice for 5-16 year-olds.
“I think the Government should try to make children feel safe whoever they are, wherever they are.”
Girl, 9
The Big Ambition
In response to the shocking testimony of Child Q in 2022, I used my powers to obtain and publish police data on strip searching of children. My research provided a complete picture, for the first time ever, of how strip searches are conducted by police across England and Wales over five and a half years (2018 to June 2023) – including new data for 2022 to 2023.
My analysis confirmed that the issues are not confined to London – indeed, there are indications that outside of London the issues are even more deeply entrenched. I pushed for improvements to continue at pace, with fewer searches carried out, better data recording and improved practice. My latest research showed some progress but there are still far too many strip searches happening.
Children want to explore the online world, but they want to do so free from risky features such as addictive scrolling, strangers contacting them and explicit and harmful content. In my first two years in the role, I gathered the views and experiences of children and their parents and delivered a set of recommendations to strengthen the Online Safety Act. But concerns remain.
My research showed that children are being exposed to harmful content online and that platforms are failing to take appropriate action. As the Government considered a ban for under 16s I brought the views of young people and called for a reset – we should ban services and platforms with risk features, not our children. At the same time I have published screen time guidance for under 5s and am working on guidance for 5–16-year-olds
