In October 2023 Raven board member Glen Pounder moderated one panel and presented on another at an international Cyber security conference in Montreal, Canada.
The panel moderated by Glen is now available to view on YouTube with thanks to Forum InCyber.
On the subject of “A Safer Internet for Children” there were representatives from NCMEC, the EU Parliament, a former parliamentarian from France and the Tech Coalition. They answered questions from Glen on the nature of the current threat and what measures are being taken to address them. This included new EU legislation being proposed to ensure technology companies are mandated to detect and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on their platforms instead of the current position of them choosing whether to enforce their own terms of service.
Glen also spoke on a panel with a specific focus on legislation and the road towards regulation of the billion-dollar companies on which so much of our lives depend. He was able to highlight the work Raven has undertaken in the last year along with the specifics of our proposed Protect Our Children Act which has obtained bipartisan support and will make a significant change for child protection and law enforcement.
As an organization with a focus of transforming the response to child sexual exploitation, Raven is uniquely placed to help explain the multiple ways in which criminals use the Internet to groom and sexually abuse children.
Glen said “As a board member I’m delighted that Raven is asked to participate in and even moderate panels of experts in the child protection space. Sadly, legislation isn’t just decades behind technology it isn’t even in the same century.
Toys that are sold to children must comply with multiple different safety standards, so why on earth shouldn’t we ensure the same from online platforms and games that millions of children access daily?
I noted that today is a landmark for online regulation with the passage of the UK’s Online Safety Bill into law. A significant step forward which makes technology platforms play a role as part of the solution instead of only facilitating the problem.”
