Facebook admits encryption will harm efforts to prevent child exploitation

British MP asks firm why it is introducing end-to-end encryption that will put more children at risk'

Facebook's plans to implement end-to-end encryption on all its messaging products will lead to continued exploitation of some of the British children it would otherwise help to safeguard, the company has admitted to a House of Commons committee.

The firm operates a number of programmes to find and prevent child exploitation on its platforms, from scanning private messages to acting on referrals from law enforcement and other social media sites. Between them, according to evidence submitted to the home affairs committee, these programmes report around 3,000 at-risk children to the British National Crime Agency each year.