I hope...
As parties vie for votes with promises they may or may not keep, Tortoise is asking public and not-so-public figures for the one thing they hope for from Britain’s next government.
I hope children won’t be the victims of this election. On 22 May at 9.30am, to an audience of several hundred police, I announced an historic agreement with government – creating, possessing, distributing or advertising specialist files or models that create child sexual abuse was to become a new criminal offence. By 5pm, the Prime Minister had called the election and that agreement, along with other hard-won child protections, was toast. Pundits wonder if the timing was to surprise the opposition or benefit from an uptick in economic news. But the timing was costly for children. Gone is the access to tech data for coroners when a child dies, so valiantly fought for by bereaved parents. Gone is the promise of a code of conduct for Ed Tech, which is entering our schools with no proof of its efficacy or privacy. Gone is an AI code for kids. As a crossbench peer, I have neither vote nor party, but anyone reading should only vote for a party that commits to reinstating the promises made, within their first 100 days. Anything less is failing children.
Baroness Kidron’s LSE lecture Tech Tantrums is open to the public 6.30–8pm Wednesday 5 June. Register here.
