As of today, sexual communication with a child under the age of 16 is now a criminal offence.
Anyone aged 18 or over who intentionally communicates with a child under 16, acting for a sexual purpose and where the communication is sexual or intended to elicit a sexual response can be sent to jail for a maximum of two years, and will automatically be placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
The offence applies to online and offline communication, including social media, e-mail, texts, letters, and other forms of communication.
The law was created after the NSPCC campaigned for better protections for children online. During the Lords Report stage of the Serious Crime Bill Lord Harris of Haringey then tabled an amendment proposing a new criminal offence in this area.
The provisions can be found in S.67 of The Serious Crime Act 2015:
Sexual communication with a child
After section 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 insert—
“15A Sexual communication with a child
(1)A person aged 18 or over (A) commits an offence if—
(a)for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, A intentionally communicates with another person (B),
(b)the communication is sexual or is intended to encourage B to make (whether to A or to another) a communication that is sexual, and
(c)B is under 16 and A does not reasonably believe that B is 16 or over.
(2)For the purposes of this section, a communication is sexual if—
(a)any part of it relates to sexual activity, or
(b)a reasonable person would, in all the circumstances but regardless of any person’s purpose, consider any part of the communication to be sexual;
and in paragraph (a) “sexual activity” means an activity that a reasonable person would, in all the circumstances but regardless of any person’s purpose, consider to be sexual.
(3)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine or both;
(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years.”
Researching Reform has received guidance notes on this new law, and we can tell you the following:
- Laws previously in place do already address this kind of behaviour, however they are unlikely to apply if the communication does not ask the child to engage in sexual activity, and many do not require automatic sex offender registration.
- This is NOT an internet specific offence. It will apply equally to offline and online communications, including oral communication and written notes.
- The new law will only apply where the defendant can be shown to have acted for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification. This distinction has been created to ensure that ordinary discussions such as family chats on safe sex guidance or discussions in an educational context, will not be caught by the offence.
How this behaviour will be detected, remains. With many online messaging platforms using encryption and the existing difficulties surrounding children reporting this kind of communication and adults identifying it, prosecution in this area will be difficult, but the new law will at least send out the message that grooming is not acceptable and perpetrators are being targeted in a much more focused way.
Researching Reform 
YES, but social workers,fosterers,and guardians should not be free from prosecution as (in practice ) they are now .All complaints from parents and children are routinely ignored !
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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Reblogged this on National Inquiry into Organised, Orchestrated & Historic Child Sexual Abuse.
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Reblogged this on Musings of a Penpusher.
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I see several problems here. first, the said purpose of a law is rarely the real purpose of a law. It is the excuse, with a design or intention to move boundaries of the law to get at something else.
!st off, are most pedophiles soliciting on the streets? I seriously doubt it. they seek the cover of institutional power that protects them. They prey upon relatives or friends’ kids who will either not say anything or the parents won’t do any thing. So this grooming does not affect that. It does not affect the trafficking that goes on throughout elite circles. So what is it for?
May I suggest, it is designed to make any interaction with child a sin. Want to enlighten them about the world? OK! then the government will suggest that your motives are sexual, even though no mention or intention was for sex.
Here in Maine USA, we were and are having problems people texting and driving or talking on phones while driving. But rather than fix that, they used it as a pretext to fine people for things that for 50 years were never a problem like taking a sip of coffee or a bite from a burger. In fact, cops have warned that merely being distracted while stopped at traffic light, is grounds for a fine, even though you are not driving and are idling.
Could it be that that the real intent is to drive all people away from children so that only corrupt government agents can “influence children in any direction they want, especially sexual directions? I suspect it is. It surely could never be suggested that governments actually care about kids. They just want to protect pedophiles and enable them to keep raping.
stop enabling governments to abuse law and making too much law and try fixing the real causes of sexual abuse and trafficking, which I can assure you, are not grooming but are enabling law and courts to steal children and subject them to rape.
The biggest problem with humans is that they are stupid, short sighted, and too damn trusting of government always up to no good. We are our own worst enemies, straining gnats while gulping down camel. We allow government to side track us. we deserve nothing good. We are our own biggest problem. We deserve government for being so completely stupid about everything. It has to be said!
We have a saying here in the US. the government that rules least, rules best. the less government the better!
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About time too as it was passed in 2015 ! I have just been on SKY News speaking about it. One third of images are actually produced by children sexting accessed by paedophiles for the dark web. Parents dot seem to realise if they buy the phone or electronic device and contract is in their name THEY are legally responsible for contact and traffic,
Trying to engage parents to better understand the underbelly of the internet is the reason we have now brought in courses so parents learn WITH their child , and we don’t mess around with our message ! Every one is far too PC and it doesn’t work and straight to the point getting behind the eyes of the children is working but it is a skill.
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What about the involvement of medical professionals who have been inducing precocious puberty in two year olds and causing six month old babies to have a false puberty by deliberately keeping mothers vitamin b12 deficient .using nitrous oxide gas to switch off the body`s abilty to utilise vitamin b12 and with the use of vitamin b12 lowering pharma drugs such as proton pump inhibitors / anti biotics / metformin / pain killers / mefenamic acid / vaccines / antacids / anti depressants and a host of others which is causing pre term low birth weight babies to have premature puberty ? What about the use of nitrous oxide gas during birth which neurologically damages the developing brains of babies effecting sexual development ? What about the use of forceps during birth which damages the optic nerve and effects the hypothalamic function of the brain which controls body temperature regulation and effects the pituitary gland ( master gland ) which controls sex hormone and behavior and the resulting hormone imbalance is causing premature puberty ? What about the head x-raying of babies which is causing learning difficulties and premature puberty . Surely this law should also apply to maternity and children`s hospitals and the social workers who have been harvesting these babies and children for generations in order for sexual abuse in the ” care ” industry to take place which has been going on for generations . Many underage children have been placed in care then sent round in taxis and handed to abusers . They have been sexually and physically assaulted and threatened to keep their mouth shut . They have been thrown onto the streets to fend for themselves and have then become victims of the sex and drugs industries . Who is going to monitor this ?
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