Social Media: Catfishing

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to address ‘catfishing’ on social media platforms.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Information and Technology (Baroness Jones of Whitchurch) (Lab)]

My Lords, the impact of catfishing can be devastating for victims, but the online world is not a lawless environment. Already, if you commit a crime online, you will face the consequences. Social media companies also have a clear responsibility to keep people safe on their platforms. The Online Safety Act will provide additional protections requiring platforms to take action to protect users from illegal content and activity that is harmful to children online.

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her Answer. Only last Friday in the High Court in Belfast, a man from Northern Ireland was sentenced for the manslaughter of a child from North America he had groomed and targeted. As a result of that, she took her own life. There were many other examples of his online bullying, amounting to over 3,000. Therefore, I would like some assurances from my noble friend. What steps are the Government taking to sanction social media platforms such as Meta, which fail properly to monitor contact and access to adult sites by children under 16, in the context of the Online Safety Act? Will any new legislation or statutory regulations be required to update the legislation in respect of last week’s legal matter?

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[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I express my deepest sympathy to the family of the victims of this appalling case. In addition to the existing criminal laws, social media companies already have a duty to keep people safe from these abhorrent crimes on their platforms. The Government obviously share the noble Baroness’s commitment to keeping children safe. When the Online Safety Act is fully implemented, it will require user-to-user services to take steps to protect children from accessing that sort of harmful content. Ofcom will have robust enforcement powers to use against companies that fail to fulfil their duties, and responsibilities to introduce age-appropriate measures via the platforms. At the moment, our priority has to be to implement that Act so that those who use social media, particularly children, can feel safe. But, as I have said before at the Dispatch Box, we are keeping this under review in case any further legislation is required.

[Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I am sure the Minister is aware of the work of Jim Gamble, the founding CEO of CEOP. He has proposed an innovative five-point plan to deal with cases such as that mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie. Will the Minister consider meeting Mr Gamble to discuss his innovative five-point plan? Can she also tell the House about the investment made in classrooms to engender digital proficiency among our young people?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I am of course happy to meet the gentleman the noble Baroness mentioned. We are open to all suggestions about how we can improve this legislation. None of this is 100% secure—we absolutely know that—and we know that, as technology is moving forward, we need to move forward too. It seems that the criminals are always one step ahead of us, so we need to catch up and make sure that we take all the appropriate action we can with the new technology that is being used. The noble Baroness also made an important point about education. Ofcom already has an important media literacy strategy that it is rolling out, and that includes education in schools and with young people. But we all have a responsibility—every parent has a responsibility to say to their child, “What you see on your social media platform may not be what you think you’re seeing”. We need to make sure that they are made aware of those dangers.

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, Naomi Long, the Justice Minister in Northern Ireland, has said that Westminster’s legislation on online crimes, including catfishing, is not strong enough, particularly on unverified social media accounts. Worse, 87% of those who report online crime to the police get an immediate response of “no further action”. What will the Government do to ensure that police forces and the CPS have the right information to make sure that that appalling figure is reduced?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

We are working closely with the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice on the implementation of the existing legislation because, as I say, a number of pieces of legislation are already on the statute book. Some capture fraud offences —I note the Fraud Act—and others capture online frauds, including romance frauds on dating apps and so on, which, sadly, are all too widespread. Those actions are being taken. We are talking about this to the Home Office, which is also on a learning curve in relation to how it can tackle these issues more robustly. We are carrying on our dialogue with it.

[Lord Vaux of Harrowden (CB)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness mentioned romance fraud and other frauds. Approximately 70% of fraud arises on social media platforms, particularly Meta, yet the reimbursement for fraud is all placed on the banks, and no liability applies to the social media platforms. What plans do the Government have to make social media platforms pay for their share of the frauds in order to incentivise them to do something to stop them?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

We are acutely aware of this issue. We know that there is a live ongoing argument about it and we are talking to our colleagues across government to find a way through, but we have not come to a settled view yet.

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

My Lords, catfishing is, of course, one of the misuses of technology in respect of which AI is rapidly enhancing both the attack and the defence. Does the Minister agree that the most effective, adaptive and future-proof defence against catfishing is actually personal awareness and resilience? If so, can the Minister provide a bit more of an update on the progress made in implementing this crucial media literacy strategy, which will be such an important part of defending us all against these attacks in future?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

Ofcom published its latest vision of the media literacy strategy just a couple of months ago, so its implementation is very much in its infancy. The Government very much support it and we will work with Ofcom very closely to roll it out. So Ofcom has a comprehensive media literacy strategy on these issues, but as we all know, schools have to play their part as well: it has to be part of the curriculum. We need to make sure that children are kept safe in that way.

The noble Viscount referred to AI. The rules we have—the Online Safety Act and so on—are tech-neutral in the sense that, even if an image is AI generated, it would still fall foul of that Act; it does not matter whether it is real or someone has created it. Also, action should be taken by the social media companies to take down those images.

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

My Lords, as a survivor of the seven-year long period during which the Online Safety Act was developed, I have to confess that I do not think we ever came across the word “catfishing”. In a quick moment, I looked it up on Google—and, of course, it has not even reached Google yet. It talks about those who wish to catch fish, rather than catfishing. I make a joke, but this is a serious issue and the Minister is trying to address it very fairly. The problem is that the technology is so efficient and quick that the offences are moving ahead of our ability as legislators to make the necessary laws. The key element of the Online Safety Act is that that which is illegal offline is also illegal online. When will we see the necessary offence on the statute book?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My noble friend is quite right about the expression “catfishing”. I had to check the definition before I came here today, and for anyone who wants that clarification, it is when someone sets up a fake online identity and uses it to trick and control others. It covers a whole range of offences, including scamming people out of money, blackmailing them or trying to harm them in another way.

On my noble friend’s general point, yes, we are of course looking at how we can match online safety with offline safety; that is part of ongoing work. But for the time being, as I have said several times from the Dispatch Box, rolling out the Online Safety Act is the crucial thing. We are within touching distance, and it will make a huge difference when it is fully implemented. That is our priority at this time.