The United Kingdom could soon introduce tougher sanctions for child groomers and professionals working with children under a law to be introduced this year.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper recently announced that the government will introduce a "significant package of measures" in the next few weeks. The measures will have provisions aimed at tackling online child sexual exploitation, including one that would make child grooming be treated as a statutory aggravating factor when judges sentence offenders for specified child sex offenses such as rape and sexual assault.
If passed, the provision would allow judges to give offenders a longer prison sentence on top of the time they receive for the sexual offense they commit against the victim. The law will also apply to sentences for abusers who are part of gangs, even if they themselves did not participate in the act of grooming a child, per The Telegraph.
It was noted that the law applies to all acts of child grooming, including those that are not sexual.
Mandatory Reporting
In addition to tougher sentences for child groomers, Cooper announced they were planning provisions that would introduce mandatory reporting of claims of child sexual abuse for professionals working with the youth. The law would also introduce criminal sanctions for professionals who fail to make the report.
"We will make it mandatory to report abuse, and we will put the measures in the crime and policing bill that will be put before parliament this spring, making it an offense, with professional and criminal sanctions, to fail to report or cover up child sexual abuse," Cooper said.
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A similar bill was supposed to be introduced last year as part of a criminal justice bill from Rishi Sunak. However, that bill never became law after campaigners criticized it for watering down the reporting of abuse. The bill only required reporting if there was "hard evidence" of the abuse and not when professionals had suspicions or saw potential indicators, according to The Guardian.
What Led to the New Provisions?
The new provision comes after an independent inquiry found that some professionals in positions of trust---including doctors, teachers, and social workers---either failed to act on claims of abuse or further investigate suspicions of abuse.
Apart from the proposed laws outlined above, Cooper also said the government plans to introduce bills that would form a victims and survivors panel tasked with overseeing reforms and establishing a core dataset for child abuse and protection.
