NSPCC aims to reset the debate on end-to-end encryption

• Polling shows majority of adults in Scotland would back end-to-end encryption in private messaging if children’s safety is not compromised
• NSPCC chief calls for a reset of the debate to protect the safety and privacy rights of children
• Home Secretary to address NSPCC event on end-to-end encryption

The NSPCC is warning that private messaging is the frontline of child sexual abuse online and is calling for an urgent re-set of debates on end-to-end encryption.

The call comes as polling shows the Scottish public support for end-to-end encryption of private messages would double if platforms could demonstrate children’s safety would not be compromised.

An NSPCC/YouGov survey found 29% of adults in Scotland support using end-to-end encryption on social media and messaging services, but this jumps to 59% if it was rolled out only if and when tech firms can ensure children’s safety is protected.

A total of 183 adults in Scotland were surveyed between 31^st December 2020 and 4^th January 2021.

Major tech firms currently use a range of technology to identify child abuse images and detect grooming and sexual abuse in private messages.

But there are fears that Facebook’s proposals to end-to-end encrypt Facebook Messenger and Instagram would render these tools useless, with estimates that 70% of global child abuse reports could be lost.

In 2018 these reports resulted in 2,500 arrests and 3,000 children being safeguarded in the UK.

A major NSPCC roundtable attended by the UK Government Home Secretary, Priti Patel, will today (Monday) bring together child protection, civil society and law enforcement experts from the UK, US, Canada, Ireland and Australia.

The charity will call for an urgent reset of the debate around end-to-end encryption which they say has increasingly become an ‘either or’ argument skewed in favour of adult privacy over the safety and privacy rights of children.

However, latest polling suggests public support for a balanced settlement that protects the safety of children while maximising the privacy of all users –  including children who have been sexually abused.

• More than half (52%) of adults in Scotland believe the ability to detect child abuse images is more important than the right to privacy and more than a third (39%) think they are equally important. Only 3% say privacy should be prioritised over safety.
• 94% support social networks and messaging services having the technical ability to detect child abuse images on their sites.
• 95% support a technical ability to detect adults sending sexual images to children on their services.

Sir Peter Wanless, NSPCC Chief Executive, said: “Private messaging is the frontline of child sexual abuse but the current debate around end-to-end encryption risks leaving children unprotected where there is most harm.

“The public want an end to rhetoric that heats up the issue but shines little light on a solution, so it’s in firms’ interests to find a fix that allows them to continue to use tech to disrupt abuse in an end-to-end encrypted world.

“We need a coordinated response across society, but ultimately the UK Government must be the guardrail that protects child users if tech companies choose to put them at risk with dangerous design choices.”

A re-set debate should focus on demonstrating the impact that end-to-end encryption will have on engineering away platforms’ ability to find abuse in private messaging, and how this can be avoided.

The current debate predominantly focuses on the impact of end-to-end encryption for law enforcement, which emphasises the investigation of abuse after it has already taken place – rather than focussing on the loss of platforms’ ability to detect and disrupt abuse much earlier. 

At the roundtable, the NSPCC will share new research and analysis about the implications of end-to-end encryption for child protection and call for tech firms to refocus their approach through safer design features and investment in technology.

It says tech firms should strive to achieve a new settlement that balances properly the benefits and risks of end-to-end encryption, underpinned by legal safeguards through regulation.

The NSPCC is calling for a reset of the debate that allows parties to reach a balanced settlement on both safety and privacy by:

• Considering the needs of all users, including children
• Avoiding characterising children’s safety as a simplistic trade off against adult’s privacy
• Reflecting children’s digital rights under international law
• Tech firms respecting the full range of fundamental rights at stake, rather than privileging some over others
• Considering how particular design features can exacerbate the risk of end-to-end encryption to children – e.g. Facebook algorithms that suggest children as friends to adults and plans to auto delete messages on WhatsApp

The UK Government Home Secretary will address the meeting a year after the NSPCC brought together 130 children’s organisations to call on Facebook not to proceed with end-to-end encryption until they can guarantee children’s safety won’t be compromised.

The NSPCC’s report End-to-End Encryption: Understanding the Impacts for Child Safety Online compiled research and interviews with experts from 17 organisations in the UK, US and Australia, including industry, government, law enforcement, civil society and academics.

Its policy briefing Private messaging and the rollout of end-to-end encryption – the implications for child protectionsets out the importance of a range of responses to ensure child protection can be maintained in end-to-end encrypted environments, through technological, civil society and legislative and regulatory action.