International Women’s Day

Baroness Smith of Llanfaes Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (PC)]

My Lords, I congratulate all noble Baronesses on their maiden speeches today. As the youngest Member of this House, I feel a particular responsibility to bring the voices of young women and girls into our debates, to defend and extend our rights, to prioritise our safety and to ensure that we are heard.

We should not have merely to hope for a fairer, safer future. We should expect it, and we have every right to expect those in power to act in our interests at home and abroad. This is what motivates me to speak today, and it is an absolute privilege to contribute to this debate marking International Women’s Day.

The “Give to gain” theme is not the official theme. It comes from a private marketing agency in London. International Women’s Day has roots in labour movements and women’s rights activism. It was never meant to be a corporate slogan generator. This year’s theme from the United Nations—

“Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”—


is a call to action.

However deeply rooted sexism and misogyny are, and however divisive the politics of the far right become, we will stand our ground. If we are serious about justice, we must confront all forms of violence against women and girls, everywhere. This means offline and online, especially given the rise of deepfake technology, which is devastating the lives of women and girls. It also means confronting head-on what is so often hidden in plain sight.

Today, I want to highlight one of the fastest-growing and least visible forms of abuse: livestreamed child sexual abuse, and the role that the UK has played in driving it. I am grateful to the International Justice Mission for its campaigning and for shining a light on this crisis. The UK is among the top three global consumers of livestreamed child sexual abuse. This sickening abuse is ordered, paid for and directed in real time, often for as little as £15. It overwhelmingly targets girls, often in low-income countries such as the Philippines, Brazil and Colombia. In the Philippines alone, nearly half a million children were trafficked to produce material in 2022. That is one in every 100 Filipino children. This is a gendered global injustice. It is perpetrated digitally, but its impact is lifelong, and it is happening on everyday apps and platforms, streamed through smartphones, tablets and laptops here in the UK.

Our current online safety legislation does not go far enough. The Online Safety Act focuses on platforms and search engines, but much livestreamed abuse is produced and viewed through private video calls on devices where tech companies use no tools at all to detect the ongoing abuse. This is why a growing coalition is calling for on-device safeguards: technology built directly into operating systems that detects abuse in real time without breaking encryption and without sharing personal data. It would prevent illegal child sexual abuse material being created or viewed in the first place. We know that this is possible. Companies already use similar technology to detect nudity on children’s accounts entirely on-device across Apple, Meta and Google products.

If we can stop children seeing harmful content we can also stop children being abused on camera. The issue is not technical feasibility; it is incentive. Without legislation, the tech industry will not build safety for all children in all devices. So today, for International Women’s Day, I ask the Minister to consider three practical interventions: first, extend regulation to device manufacturers and operating system developers, so that safeguarding becomes a basic requirement on every device sold in the UK; secondly, set a global standard for technology that is safe by design and prevents abuse upstream, not after it is shared but before it is ever captured; and finally, deliver on the UK’s pledge at the global ministerial conference to lead the global fight against online child sexual exploitation. If the UK is among the top consumers of this abuse then the UK has a responsibility to lead the way in ending it.

I visit many schools and colleges, and I hear far too often from girls and young women that the digital world is stacked against them, and that when politicians make decisions about their lives they feel invisible: spoken about, yes, but never offered more than empty promises and soundbites. It does not have to be this way. On International Women’s Day, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to drive real, urgent change. Let us show that this Parliament does not simply debate injustice but is working to dismantle it for every woman and girl.