The UK government has announced that, in a move to reinforce digital safety for everyone across the country, it will be expanding the scope of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to cover the adult population too.
What Is The UKCCIS?
Formed in 2008, the UKCCIS is now made up of more than 200 organisations drawn from across government, industry, law, academia and charity sectors that have been working in partnership to help keep children safe online. It has been doing this by running an array of campaigns and forwarding policy proposals that aim to improve the online safety and welfare for children in UK schools and colleges.
Some of the help it gives includes providing advice for dealing with ‘sexting’, proposals for the default filtering of online pornography (2012), tackling race and faith targeted bullying, as well as creating a guide for providers of social media and interactive services with examples of good practice, and creating a guide for parents and carers whose children are using social media.
Scope Widened – Same Protection For All
The plans to expand the UKCCIS were announced in the government’s Internet Safety Strategy green paper in October 2017.
The newly proposed widening of the scope of the activities of the UKCCIS with a view to protecting adults as well as children will enable it to focus on tackling issue like cyber-bullying and sexual exploitation, the spread of radicalism and extremism across the internet, mitigating violence against girls and women, hate crime and hate speech, and any online discrimination that contravenes the Equality Act 2010.
Collaborative Approach
It is thought that a collaborative approach among the expanded number of organisations in UKCCIS and the bringing together key stakeholders, from the tech giants to the third sector, coupled with the wider scope of the population should help to bring about a safer online environment for all.
Board Member Applications Invited
The UKCCIS website is currently inviting applications for its Executive Board, a new collaborative forum through which government, the tech community, and the third sector plan to work together to ensure the UK is the safest place in the world to be online. The deadline for applications is 3rd September, and the information and links to the application forms can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-council-for-child-internet-safety-ukccis
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
All parents, whether they are business owners or not, would undoubtedly prefer to see the Internet as we know it in the UK, made a much safer place for young people to explore and use. This means that someone/something needs to take responsibility for helping to tackle the risks, and a government-led collaboration of hundreds of organisations seems to be as good a way forward as any at the current time.
With the evolving nature of cyber threats and the fact that all age groups are affected by a variety of unpleasant and criminal activity online, it makes sense that the scope of the UKCIS should be expanded to help adults too.
The Internet is a place to trade as well as to learn, communicate and interact, and a safer Internet for all can only be good news for businesses.
