Debate contribution: Tackling Online Violence Against Women and Girls

Debate contribution by Mrs Pam Cameron on 14 January 2025.

MLA: Mrs Pam Cameron
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 14 January 2025
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Opposition Business
Heading: Tackling Online Violence Against Women and Girls
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4736412

Text

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. First, I apologise on behalf of the Minister of Justice for her not being available today. I offer my best wishes to her and hope that she makes a speedy return. I hope that we are not replacing one cough with another; I will try to keep my coughing to a minimum. On behalf of the Minister of Justice, I am grateful to the Opposition for bringing this really important motion before the House today. It is an issue that has impacted on many thousands of women and girls, including Members of the House, as we have heard. The level of abuse and violence against women and girls, whether online or otherwise, is completely unacceptable. Members know that we remain committed to strengthening the law where possible to try to stop that blight on our society. In the previous Assembly mandate, the Minister of Justice brought forward legislation that strengthened existing law and introduced new offences of stalking, upskirting, downblousing and cyber-flashing and four new offences designed to tackle the particular behaviour of an adult pretending to be a child, which is mainly perpetrated online, and making communication with a child under 16 with a view to sexual grooming. Those offences have added tangible and valuable protections against online and offline abuse. As junior Minister Reilly said in response to the previous motion, the Department continues to work collaboratively to help to eradicate such abuse. That includes work with the Department of Health on the domestic and sexual abuse strategy and with the Executive Office, where online abuse and violence against women and girls is an area of focus identified through the development of its ending violence against women and girls strategic framework for 2024-2031. The framework will enable collaborative working across Departments and wider society to address online abuse. Identified areas of abuse include cyberstalking, cyber-flashing, sexual harassment, grooming for exploitation or abuse and image-based sexual abuse. Unfortunately, the fast pace of advances in technology means that the prevalence of online abuse is increasing. Our challenge lies in the influence of the online world on our community, particularly on our young people, in shaping attitudes and the capacity to establish safe and healthy relationships. As the motion makes particular reference to the making of sexually explicit deepfake images, I will address that issue first. Those images, where people's faces, usually those of women and girls, are placed on pornographic images without consent, cause immense harm and distress. They can destroy the lives of victims, who report feeling embarrassed, violated and unsafe, and there are far too many victims. On a recent 'Woman's Hour' feature on Radio 4, it was stated that, in 2023, more deepfake videos were viewed than in all the preceding years put together. On top of deepfake sites, videos have been viewed more than 4·2 billion times. The psychological impact of knowing that those images are out there must be severe, and wondering who has seen them must play on victims' minds constantly. Such images also harm society. They are a tangible form of misogyny and the over-sexualisation of women and girls. What impact are those images having on those who watch them? I believe that those images desensitise people, mainly men, to the harm that they cause and deprive women and girls of the right to autonomy, dignity and privacy. The creation of deepfake images should not be tolerated, and, as I said, I am determined, where I can, to send the message to perpetrators that sexual offending against women and girls, whether online or offline, will not be tolerated. Last week, the UK Government announced that they plan to bring forward, in a crime and policing Bill, proposals to make it an offence to create sexually explicit deepfake images. The Justice Minister has already been approached by the Minister responsible, the Minister of State for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention, on a possible extension of the offence to Northern Ireland. Subject to the agreement of the Executive, the Justice Committee and Members, the Minister intends to take the opportunity to ensure that there is similar provision here by extending the offence to Northern Ireland. DOJ officials are liaising with UK Government officials on the detail of the legislative proposals. The Department constantly keeps the legislative framework governing online and offline offending against women and girls under review, as evidenced —.
If you do not mind, I cannot. I have a lot to get through, but I am sure that the Minister will be watching and will read Hansard and will be able to answer questions that are forthcoming from the debate. The Department constantly keeps the legislative framework governing online and offline offending against women and girls under review, as evidenced by the offences that I have already referenced and which were introduced in the previous mandate. The Minister continues to look for opportunities where she can to strengthen the law further and to enhance protection from that type of abhorrent behaviour. That is why the Department of Justice is seeking to take the opportunity to provide for a deepfake offence in Northern Ireland. Turning to wider issues of online communications and harms, Members will be aware that telecommunications legislation is a reserved matter. However, we have sought always to take a proactive approach towards supporting online safety. While the policy and legislation is developed and led by the UK Government, the Minister remains fully committed to playing her part in addressing the issue where she can. Online abuse and harassment is completely unacceptable. Everyone should be able to enjoy the positive benefits of online engagement without being subject to vile, abusive and harmful content. A number of recent high-profile cases have shown the devastating impact of online abuse and the potential for it to lead to further harm. During the passage of what is now the Online Safety Act 2023, the Department of Justice sought to influence its content, urging that more be done to address the lack of accountability of anonymous account holders, which is a key issue when seeking to prevent and detect online harms and offences. The Minister met representatives of Ofcom, which is now the regulator for online safety under the 2023 Act, to discuss implementation of the Act and plans to put it into practice. Ofcom was a key co-design partner in the development of the Executive's ending violence against women and girls strategic framework. The framework will be agile in its delivery to ensure that it can respond to evolving and changing cultures and practices, such as expanding forms of online harm and technological abuse, including sexually explicit deepfake imagery. Ofcom is developing draft guidance for protecting women and girls online, which is a requirement of the 2023 Act. The draft guidance, which is due to launch for consultation in February, will focus on the content and activity covered by the Act that disproportionately affects women and girls, such as online harassment, online misogyny and intimate image abuse. Executive Office and DOJ officials have been liaising with Ofcom, through the two UK-wide workshops, as it develops the guidance for consultation. Members will be aware that round-table forums were held to take views on tackling online abuse and intimidation, particularly in light of incidents during the most-recent Assembly elections. Alarming and distressing experiences of online abuse were shared, and the Minister subsequently wrote to the Home Secretary to express her concerns. Those who seek to harass, bully, intimidate or otherwise cause harm should be aware that such activity, whether perpetrated directly or online, may constitute a criminal offence. I strongly encourage victims of such abuse to report all those incidents to the police. However, as we have heard today, a criminal justice response alone cannot improve online safety. We must take a holistic approach that is focused on prevention and education, as set out in the cross-cutting Executive online safety strategy, which has been put in place to assist children and young people to participate in the online world in a positive, safe and responsible way. The online safety strategy, which is coordinated by the Department of Health and involves a number of other Departments, aims to educate, support and involve a wide range of key stakeholders, including parents, carers and the wider family; schools, colleges and youth organisations; and practitioners who work with children and young people. The launch of the dedicated online safety hub in April 2024 is also a welcome development to help parents, carers and young people to be more safe and secure online. I am sure that Members will support me in calling out the perpetrators of this despicable behaviour — behaviour that, unfortunately, is increasing in prevalence in our society. We must do all that we can, collectively, to protect our community from the harm that it causes and to seek to address the wider issue of misogyny and violence against women and girls, which is all too prevalent in Northern Ireland. I am sure that Department of Justice officials will review Members' comments and pick up on any specific issues that I have not been able to respond to. I commend the motion and the amendment to the House.

1,534 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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