Flaw in the Law Fixed!
Thanks to you, police can now protect thousands of children across the UK from online grooming.
In October 2014, the NSPCC launched Flaw in the Law, a campaign to call for a clear new offence that would make it always illegal for an adult to send a child a sexual message.
When the NSPCC launched the campaign, over 80% of people said this should be illegal, while 3 out of 4 adults thought it already was (YouGov, October 2014).
Over 50,000 individuals signed a petition and wrote to the Minister for Online Child Protection calling for a new law.
And thanks to this, the Government listened.
At a major global summit in December 2014 about online safety, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would introduce such a law.
The law was passed as part of the Serious Crime Act (2015). It’s now a criminal offence for an adult to send a sexual message to a child.
However, because the law wasn’t given a start date, police couldn’t charge people with the offence in England and Wales.
Together, we asked Liz Truss to start the law and she finally listened.
It wasn’t easy, but by putting pressure on Government the NSPCC and its supporters has made sure thousands of children will be protected from sexual abuse every year with the anti-grooming law becoming enforceable from April 2017.
“Children should be as safe online as they are offline, wherever they are in the UK. This law will give police in England and Wales the powers they need to protect children from online grooming, and to intervene sooner to stop abuse before it starts.” -Peter Wanless- NSPCC Chief Executive
Help the NSPCC to continue to make the internet a safe place for children, and make sure children get the right support after abuse.
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