Guidance to judges on the anonymisation of children judgements

This project will build on previous Nuffield-funded research into children’s views and issues of privacy and safeguarding concerns.

The study will evaluate Practice Guidance issued by the President of the Family Division in 2018, which endorsed the draft guidance proposed in the 2016 research. The Practice Guidance helps judges to improve the anonymisation of children judgements placed on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) – a public website. It explores whether, following the introduction of the President’s Practice Guidance, the potential for ‘jigsaw’ identification of children through the reporting of judgements is reduced or eliminated and if safeguards for abused and vulnerable children have improved by reducing or eliminating graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.

The study will investigate whether/how the Practice Guidance assists judges in better balancing children’s rights to privacy and their safeguarding needs and public interest in a better understanding of the work of family judges. This is a particularly important issue in the digital age, where information can be downloaded and shared by the media and on social media platforms and remain publicly available throughout a child or young person’s life. The project considers whether traditional measures to protect children’s anonymity work in an increasingly digitally connected society, and the implications of their digital footprint throughout their lives.

The research employs a qualitative methodology mirroring that of the previous (2015) study. The researchers will identify a sample of judgments written since the introduction of the 2018 guidance, where possible geographically matched to young people recruited from the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS). It takes as a starting point the views and experiences of young people as subjects and stakeholders in the family justice system, as audiences of the media, and as users of the internet and social media platforms.

Findings will be provided to the President of the Family Division to support the forthcoming Family Division’s Transparency Review. As well as judges and lawyers, the data will assist social workers and children’s guardians – and clinical experts, to be better prepared to address issues of privacy and safeguarding early in cases and in discussions with young people.