Facebook is no longer safe for children to use as Meta’s new encryption rules will allow abusers to hide, the NCA warns
- NCA head has likened new rules to ‘consciously turning blind eye to child abuse’
Parents should think very carefully before allowing children to use Facebook as it is no longer safe, the National Crime Agency (NCA) says.
NCA bosses have sounded the alarm over Meta’s platforms after it decided to automatically encrypt all Facebook and Messenger chats. The head of the NCA has likened this to ‘consciously turning a blind eye to child abuse’.
The NCA arrests about 800 suspected paedophiles and safeguards 1,200 children a month – largely as a result of information from Meta about abusers on its platforms.
It fears that the number of arrests will plummet due to Meta’s decision, which means the messages can be read only by the sender and recipient. The company will no longer be able to detect child abusers operating on its platforms.
Police will lose about 92 per cent of the related reports they get from Facebook, according to the NCA.
The NCA arrests about 800 suspected paedophiles and safeguards 1,200 children a month – largely as a result of information from Meta about abusers on its platforms (Stock Image)
Rob Jones, the NCA’s director general of operations, said: ‘I would advise parents to think very carefully before allowing their children to use that platform. They have made the business decision to no longer see what’s happening by introducing encryption. We’ve implored them not to do this.
‘The platform is not as safe as it was for children because nobody knows what’s going on in there. Children are masquerading as adults because there’s no effective age verification and paedophiles are masquerading as children to establish relationships and grooming potential victims.’
Graeme Biggar, the NCA’s director general, added: ‘We are not convinced that the measures [Meta is] planning to put in place will provide anything like the protection of previous arrangements.’
Meta’s decision comes at a time when eight out of ten paedophiles found guilty of viewing indecent images are spared jail by judges. Mr Biggar said: ‘That balance does not feel quite right to me.’
Police will lose about 92 per cent of the related reports they get from Facebook, according to the NCA (Stock Image)
The NCA is also calling for heftier sentences for anyone who is a moderator or administrator of a child abuse site. Mr Jones said investigators had also seen the ‘first signs’ of the growing ‘monetisation’ of child abuse, with gangs charging crypto currency for images.
A Meta spokesman said: ‘Encryption helps keep people safe from hackers, fraudsters and criminals. We don’t think people want us reading their messages so have developed robust measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security.
‘Our recent report detailed these, such as restricting over-19s from messaging teens who don’t follow them and using technology to identify and take action against malicious behaviour. As we roll out end-to-end encryption, we expect to continue providing more reports to law enforcement than our peers due to our industry-leading work on keeping people safe.’
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