End-to-End Online Encryption Shouldn’t Apply to Children’s Accounts: Report

A teenage girl, who claims to be a victim of sexual abuse and alleged grooming, poses in Rotherham, England, on Sept. 3, 2014. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Applying end-to-end encryption of online private messages could compromise children’s safety, a report said.

Anne Longfield, children’s commissioner for England, who published the report (pdf) on Tuesday, said that the blanket move of tech firms to apply end-to-end encryption could protect perpetrators of child abuse.