Today’s Home Office stories include an interview with the Home Secretary on Online Child Sexual Exploitation and his phone call to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to discuss the fight against knife crime.
Home Secretary calls on Met Police to make 'full use' of powers in fight against knife crime
The Times, FT, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Mail, Express and Sun report that the Home Secretary has made clear to Scotland Yard that they should make “full use” of police powers, such as targeted stop-and-search, to tackle knife crime in London.
Coverage notes that in a phone call on Wednesday, the Home Secretary asked Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, to call on the police to continue to work in partnership with him as they respond to knife crime in the capital.
Outlets highlights that his intervention follows a spate of knife attacks on London’s streets which have left five people dead within the past six days.
In an interview with Sky News, the Home Secretary said serious violence is like a disease which needs to be prevented.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid told Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick:
We must act together, and I stand with you as we face this challenge.
Alongside tough law enforcement we will not let up on our work to prevent young people getting drawn into knife crime in the first place. But we must step up the police response to get the situation under control so that these measures have time to work.
Home Secretary interview on US visit to tackle child sex exploitation
The Home Secretary Sajid Javid gave an interview to the Metro during his visit to the US to tackle the issue of online child sex exploitation.
During the chat, he cites his concerns that the law isn’t moving as quickly as some technology companies are.
Mr Javid reaffirmed his commitment to challenge tech giants like Facebook, Google and WhatsApp to do more to combat online abuse.
In a wide-ranging chat, the Home Secretary also highlighted that £200million of funding was being provided through the Youth Endowment Fund to tackle knife crime.
Home Office Sajid Javid said:
A couple of months back, I gave a speech that one of my missions as home secretary is to do a lot more to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE). That includes online. When I first visited the National Crime Agency, I was astonished by the scale of abuse, particularly when they told me there’s 80,000 paedophiles online in Britain.
There are daily abuses online, real abuses, as bad as if they had the child in their own bedroom. And when the NCA officers described live streaming, where someone could be in Manchester on their computer, having the child abused in Manila by criminal gangs, they can order what child they want, what age, what hair colour, what gender — it just sounded horrific.
I’m going to see Facebook, Google, WhatsApp and others, and challenge them to do more. Since last year’s terror attacks, tech companies have upped their game. Why can’t we use the same tools for something else?