Facebook’s encryption plans will enable pedophiles to harm children without law enforcement being able to detect the activities, the British National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned, the Independent reported on Wednesday.
The NCA’s concern came as one of Britain's most prolific pedophiles, David Wilson, was jailed for exploiting Facebook to target some 5,000 children while posing as a teenage girl.
The UK received some 12 million tips from Facebook last year connected to possible sex abuse images, senior officials said, explaining that if that was cut off then more children would be at risk because it would be much more difficult to find offenders.
Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the UK's national policing lead for child protection, said that “The information from Facebook was crucial in bringing Wilson to justice. Which is why I am concerned about Facebook planning to introduce further encryption and privacy protections, making it harder for us to prevent exploitation and find child sexual abusers like Wilson.”
British Home Secretary Priti Patel reiterated that “It is vital that Facebook do not press ahead without amending their current end-to-end-encryption plans, otherwise sick criminals like Wilson could still be abusing children with impunity,” according to the Eastern Daily Press.
NCA director for threat leadership Rob Jones told a press conference that the NCA had been in discussions with Facebook about its concerns but was unhappy with current assurances.
“I implore them to not create a risk and fail in their duty of care,” he said. “They must explain how they mitigate the risk from those new measures.”