April 26, 2024 • 11 mins
In this engaging podcast episode, Alan Collins, head of the abuse team at Hugh James Solicitors, dives into the alarming issue of child sexual exploitation via technology, particularly focusing on the startling fact that children as young as three are being embroiled in online sexual abuse. Collins discusses a recent report by the Internet Watch Foundation, which confirms the horrifying extent of this crisis.
Alan asserts that this isn't just an issue for governments, law enforcement, or social media platforms—it's a concern for all of us as a society. He explores how this exploitation often intersects with other criminal activities, such as drug smuggling, and underlines the enormous financial motivations behind these deplorable acts.
The podcast further delves into the role of technology, with Alan questioning how young children gain access to it and the inherent risks exposed. Alongside this, he discusses the vital importance of education in identifying and understanding these risks and denotes how media potentially amplifies these problems by presenting unrealistic lifestyles and behaviors that young people tend to emulate.
Finally, he emphasises the imperative of listening to survivors of abuse to better comprehend the devastation caused by this menace and find effective ways to prevent history from repeating. Keeping in mind the dire consequences, Alan underscores the need for collective action and conscious effort to eradicate this atrocious practice from our society.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, I'm Alan Collins. I'm the partner who heads up the abuse team at Hugh
James Solicitors, and I bring you this latest podcast.
Normally, it's a team effort, but my colleagues are away on the road at the
moment, dealing with cases, representing clients, and so you are going to have
(00:20):
to make do with me with this latest edition.
So what we're going to be discussing in this podcast
or what i'm going to be talking about in this podcast is
a startling media headline about
youngsters children as young as three being embroiled in online sexual abuse
(00:44):
through the use of mobile phones technology etc being used for the purposes
of sexual exploitation.
Staggering, upsetting, troubling. So if you are likely to be upset,
troubled in any way by the content of this podcast, now is the time to switch
(01:08):
off and go and do something else.
Otherwise, please do stay with me.
I'm going to avoid going into gory details because that's
unnecessary and it's troubling
and to be entirely frank i can't
get my head around the subject it it
beggars uh belief but in
(01:30):
these podcasts we try and discuss the difficult
the seemingly impossible the unpleasant
in order that maybe something will be
learned for the better so anyway internet
net watch foundation um published a report and
very in-depth report by the looks of it and from
(01:51):
what one reads it is basically confirming
i think what lots of others have understood which
is that the very very young are
being embroiled in sexual exploitation computation
how have we got here and what can we
do about it go to
(02:13):
the internet watch foundations report and you can see for yourself how they
have been inundated with concerns and inquiries and as i said the very young
are being caught up in what is going on.
Maybe I'm being naive, or maybe I do not understand the problem or the extent of the problem.
(02:39):
The fact is, I think it's not just an issue for law enforcement and government,
or those responsible for social media.
It is a matter for all of us as individuals and society.
Society government can lay down the
laws in order to try and ensure that we
(03:00):
have some kind of civilized society it
sets down the parameters you know the the tracks
the where we're meant to go down as
lawful civilized um citizens so big role for government when it comes to law
and law enforcement which brings us on to the police and law enforcement because
(03:22):
you know you know the The criminals behind all of this have to be caught and
prosecuted and punished.
And I think we have to accept that there is an industry often behind what is going on.
I know we struggle to understand how and why, but that's the reality of it.
And there is a crossover with other areas of crime, drugs, empty lines, and so on.
(03:49):
The tentacles go far and
wide and it's a it's very difficult for us
to understand all of that but that is the reality we're not just dealing with
one-off situations we're dealing with multiple situations involving multiple
players and individuals and and so on because there is
(04:13):
a demand for the sexual exploitation of children,
and there are those who think they can make money, big money out of it.
Same as drugs, I suppose.
Anyway, I think we will have to step back and look at this objectively and ask
(04:34):
the question, well, how is it that
such young children have access to this technology in the first place?
So government could say, I,
not allowed but government can't
be in every home
the police can't be in every home monitoring what's
going on as adults we all have responsibilities don't
(04:57):
we you know is it right that such young children should
have access to this technology how are they getting
it and why would you want these young children to have access to you know mobile
phones iphones whatever it It happens to be that it's being used to enable them
to get caught up in this heinous world of sexual exploitation.
(05:22):
As I said, maybe I'm being naive or missing the point,
but I think as individuals we should be saying, well, hang on a minute,
how have these youngsters got these devices in the first place,
and who is allowing this?
How is it happening? happening so we have
(05:42):
in previous podcasts had guests
on who know a lot more about all of
the issues than than i do and one
of the common themes is education it's educating
people and society generally to understand what is
going on what to look out for to appreciate the risks
and of course that is extremely invaluable and
(06:05):
necessary big question is it happening doesn't
seem like it does it otherwise we wouldn't be having these ghastly
headlines about such young kids as free getting caught up in all of this i think
it's not just us as individuals and society generally we've got a responsibility
here but also the media we've spoken in previous podcasts about helps.
(06:32):
The role of mainstream media. We've spoken about the impact of mainstream media
on people's behavior, and in particular, the behavior of young people.
And we cited an example of a mainstream television series that was aimed at, I think, late teens,
(06:54):
young people in their 20s, you
know attractive people having nice lifestyles
that the vast majority of people could only dream of
but these attractive people
were as part of the story having
on tap sexual experiences and all portrayed as healthy great isn't this wonderful
(07:21):
this isn't this what you know you should aspire to and so on and what was very apparent is the use of.
Social media to meet attractive
young people and have a great time of course
that is seen viewed and
(07:43):
seen as um great attractive and normal
this is the way it is this is the way
you would like to lead your life wouldn't you and of course that just feeds
down doesn't it into the minds of impressionable young people all young people
you know so i think you need to we need to step back and look at what we're
(08:06):
doing objectively and it doesn't need to be,
finger pointing or puritanical or censorious or anything like that or or judgmental
i think it's It's a case of, well, what are we doing here?
What kind of messages are we...
Conveying with what we as responsible adults
(08:29):
are doing some reports you know
suggest that youngsters are more savvy than we
give them credit for wouldn't necessarily
dispute that but that doesn't
divorce us from the reality of
what is going on and something is going
on that is clearly wrong very wrong
(08:50):
and it's just going to cause yet more misery and
trouble in the coming years unless we face up
to it so i i don't
pretend to be you know
someone with all the answers whatever but
i think what i have learned if anything is
to step back and listen because you
(09:13):
do see when you're talking to survivors how things
have come about and how important it is to listen to survivors of abuse to try
and prevent history from repeating itself and survivors often come forward in
order to try and prevent what happened to them happening to others which is.
(09:35):
Humbling of course but that doesn't
detract from the point that we need to
listen and we need to to
learn and we need to understand because this you
know report from the internet watch foundation
is basically banging the
(09:55):
drum on what we've already heard and i fear we're not facing up to it's not
just down to government and law enforcement it's down to society to think well
well, you know, what is the direction of travel?
Do we really want this to be happening?
And I suspect 99.999% of the population would say no, and we need to do something about it.
(10:22):
So thank you for listening to me.
I hope that my thoughts may have been of some interest.
As I said, I may be missing the point. I may be completely naive about all of this.
So if you think i am then try and
put me right and we can pick it up in another podcast so as always if you have
(10:45):
concerns questions please do get in touch with us so it's goodbye from me and
please do tune into the next podcast when hopefully we will be joined by my esteemed,
colleagues so it's goodbye from me.
Hello, I'm Alan Collins. I'm the partner who heads up the abuse team at Hugh
James Solicitors, and I bring you this latest podcast.
Normally, it's a team effort, but my colleagues are away on the road at the
moment, dealing with cases, representing clients, and so you are going to have
(00:20):
to make do with me with this latest edition.
So what we're going to be discussing in this podcast
or what i'm going to be talking about in this podcast is
a startling media headline about
youngsters children as young as three being embroiled in online sexual abuse
(00:44):
through the use of mobile phones technology etc being used for the purposes
of sexual exploitation.
Staggering, upsetting, troubling. So if you are likely to be upset,
troubled in any way by the content of this podcast, now is the time to switch
(01:08):
off and go and do something else.
Otherwise, please do stay with me.
I'm going to avoid going into gory details because that's
unnecessary and it's troubling
and to be entirely frank i can't
get my head around the subject it it
beggars uh belief but in
(01:30):
these podcasts we try and discuss the difficult
the seemingly impossible the unpleasant
in order that maybe something will be
learned for the better so anyway internet
net watch foundation um published a report and
very in-depth report by the looks of it and from
(01:51):
what one reads it is basically confirming
i think what lots of others have understood which
is that the very very young are
being embroiled in sexual exploitation computation
how have we got here and what can we
do about it go to
(02:13):
the internet watch foundations report and you can see for yourself how they
have been inundated with concerns and inquiries and as i said the very young
are being caught up in what is going on.
Maybe I'm being naive, or maybe I do not understand the problem or the extent of the problem.
(02:39):
The fact is, I think it's not just an issue for law enforcement and government,
or those responsible for social media.
It is a matter for all of us as individuals and society.
Society government can lay down the
laws in order to try and ensure that we
(03:00):
have some kind of civilized society it
sets down the parameters you know the the tracks
the where we're meant to go down as
lawful civilized um citizens so big role for government when it comes to law
and law enforcement which brings us on to the police and law enforcement because
(03:22):
you know you know the The criminals behind all of this have to be caught and
prosecuted and punished.
And I think we have to accept that there is an industry often behind what is going on.
I know we struggle to understand how and why, but that's the reality of it.
And there is a crossover with other areas of crime, drugs, empty lines, and so on.
(03:49):
The tentacles go far and
wide and it's a it's very difficult for us
to understand all of that but that is the reality we're not just dealing with
one-off situations we're dealing with multiple situations involving multiple
players and individuals and and so on because there is
(04:13):
a demand for the sexual exploitation of children,
and there are those who think they can make money, big money out of it.
Same as drugs, I suppose.
Anyway, I think we will have to step back and look at this objectively and ask
(04:34):
the question, well, how is it that
such young children have access to this technology in the first place?
So government could say, I,
not allowed but government can't
be in every home
the police can't be in every home monitoring what's
going on as adults we all have responsibilities don't
(04:57):
we you know is it right that such young children should
have access to this technology how are they getting
it and why would you want these young children to have access to you know mobile
phones iphones whatever it It happens to be that it's being used to enable them
to get caught up in this heinous world of sexual exploitation.
(05:22):
As I said, maybe I'm being naive or missing the point,
but I think as individuals we should be saying, well, hang on a minute,
how have these youngsters got these devices in the first place,
and who is allowing this?
How is it happening? happening so we have
(05:42):
in previous podcasts had guests
on who know a lot more about all of
the issues than than i do and one
of the common themes is education it's educating
people and society generally to understand what is
going on what to look out for to appreciate the risks
and of course that is extremely invaluable and
(06:05):
necessary big question is it happening doesn't
seem like it does it otherwise we wouldn't be having these ghastly
headlines about such young kids as free getting caught up in all of this i think
it's not just us as individuals and society generally we've got a responsibility
here but also the media we've spoken in previous podcasts about helps.
(06:32):
The role of mainstream media. We've spoken about the impact of mainstream media
on people's behavior, and in particular, the behavior of young people.
And we cited an example of a mainstream television series that was aimed at, I think, late teens,
(06:54):
young people in their 20s, you
know attractive people having nice lifestyles
that the vast majority of people could only dream of
but these attractive people
were as part of the story having
on tap sexual experiences and all portrayed as healthy great isn't this wonderful
(07:21):
this isn't this what you know you should aspire to and so on and what was very apparent is the use of.
Social media to meet attractive
young people and have a great time of course
that is seen viewed and
(07:43):
seen as um great attractive and normal
this is the way it is this is the way
you would like to lead your life wouldn't you and of course that just feeds
down doesn't it into the minds of impressionable young people all young people
you know so i think you need to we need to step back and look at what we're
(08:06):
doing objectively and it doesn't need to be,
finger pointing or puritanical or censorious or anything like that or or judgmental
i think it's It's a case of, well, what are we doing here?
What kind of messages are we...
Conveying with what we as responsible adults
(08:29):
are doing some reports you know
suggest that youngsters are more savvy than we
give them credit for wouldn't necessarily
dispute that but that doesn't
divorce us from the reality of
what is going on and something is going
on that is clearly wrong very wrong
(08:50):
and it's just going to cause yet more misery and
trouble in the coming years unless we face up
to it so i i don't
pretend to be you know
someone with all the answers whatever but
i think what i have learned if anything is
to step back and listen because you
(09:13):
do see when you're talking to survivors how things
have come about and how important it is to listen to survivors of abuse to try
and prevent history from repeating itself and survivors often come forward in
order to try and prevent what happened to them happening to others which is.
(09:35):
Humbling of course but that doesn't
detract from the point that we need to
listen and we need to to
learn and we need to understand because this you
know report from the internet watch foundation
is basically banging the
(09:55):
drum on what we've already heard and i fear we're not facing up to it's not
just down to government and law enforcement it's down to society to think well
well, you know, what is the direction of travel?
Do we really want this to be happening?
And I suspect 99.999% of the population would say no, and we need to do something about it.
(10:22):
So thank you for listening to me.
I hope that my thoughts may have been of some interest.
As I said, I may be missing the point. I may be completely naive about all of this.
So if you think i am then try and
put me right and we can pick it up in another podcast so as always if you have
(10:45):
concerns questions please do get in touch with us so it's goodbye from me and
please do tune into the next podcast when hopefully we will be joined by my esteemed,
colleagues so it's goodbye from me.
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