Tougher protections for children in 'strengthened' Online Safety Bill

The Government said the new internet safety laws will go further than before to shield children and protect free speech online with increased accountability of technology firms.

Tougher measures will also be added to protect women and girls from controlling or coercive behaviour.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said policing “fully supports” the Online Safety Bill and the importance of it in protecting children from harm, adding that the “current position is simply not good enough”.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said any incentives for social media firms to over-remove people’s legal online content will be taken out of the Online Safety Bill, which is being brought back to Parliament.

“Firms will still need to protect children and remove content that is illegal or prohibited in their terms of service, however, the Bill will no longer define specific types of legal content that companies must address,” it said.

“This removes any influence future governments could have on what private companies do about legal speech on their sites, or any risk that companies are motivated to take down legitimate posts to avoid sanctions.”

New measures will also be added to make social media platforms more transparent and accountable to their users, as a result of amendments the being proposed by the Government.

It says the changes will offer users a “triple shield” of protection when online: social media firms will be legally required to remove illegal content, take down material in breach of their own terms of service, and provide adults with greater choice over the content they see and engage with.

DCMS says parents and the wider public will benefit from new changes to force technology firms to publish more information about the risks their platforms pose to children so people can see what dangers sites really hold.

Firms will be made to show how they enforce their user age limits to stop kids circumventing authentication methods and they will have to publish details of when the regulator Ofcom has taken action against them.

Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan said: “Unregulated social media has damaged our children for too long and it must end.

“I will bring a strengthened Online Safety Bill back to Parliament, which will allow parents to see and act on the dangers sites pose to young people. It is also freed from any threat that tech firms or future governments could use the laws as a licence to censor legitimate views.

“Young people will be safeguarded, criminality stamped out and adults given control over what they see and engage with online. We now have a binary choice: to get these measures into law and improve things or squabble in the status quo and leave more young lives at risk.”

She said the measures refocus the Online Safety Bill on its original aims: the pressing need to protect children and tackle criminal activity online while preserving free speech, ensuring tech firms are accountable to their users, and empowering adults to make more informed choices about the platforms they use.

It follows confirmation that the Bill will include new measures to make significant changes to the UK’s criminal law to increase protections for vulnerable people online by criminalising the encouragement of self-harm and the sharing of people’s intimate images without their consent.

To make sure the Bill’s protections for adults online strike the right balance with its protections for free speech, duties relating to “legal but harmful” content accessed by adults will be removed from the legislation and replaced with the consumer-friendly ‘triple shield’.

The Bill will instead give adults greater control over online posts they may not wish to see on platforms.

If users are likely to encounter certain types of content – such as the glorification of eating disorders, racism, anti-semitism or misogyny not meeting the criminal threshold – internet companies will have to offer adults tools to help them avoid it. These could include human moderation, blocking content flagged by other users or sensitivity and warning screens.

The legal but harmful measures will be replaced with new duties that strengthen the Bill’s free speech requirements on major online platforms to make them more accountable for their policies.

It will explicitly prohibit them from removing or restricting user-generated content, or suspending or banning users, where this does not breach their terms of service or the law. In addition, firms will need to have clear, easy to understand and consistently enforced terms of service.

It comes as new polling from Ipsos reveals that 83 per cent of people think social media companies should have a duty to protect children who are using their platforms (only four per cent disagree). Eight in ten people (78 per cent) want social media companies held accountable for keeping underage children off their platforms (only seven per cent disagree).

Responses showed there is “overwhelming public backing for action”. Eight in ten people (81 per cent) think the Government should make sure social media companies protect children when they are online and 77 per cent think social media companies should be punished if they do not protect children.

NPCC lead for child protection, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley, said: “Policing fully supports the Online Safety Bill and the importance of it in protecting children from harm.

“The current position is simply not good enough, and it is unacceptable that children are subject to the highest level of harm caused by their access to online communities; communities that the tech companies should be doing much more to keep safe.

“It puts the legal, as well as, the moral duty, rightly onto the companies who have created these communities, to make these online communities safe for all children and a hostile place for child abusers. These companies generate great wealth from children accessing their platforms and apps, now is the time, with a legislated and governed Online Safety Bill, to vastly improve the safety of all children.

“The added responsibility for in-scope companies to have the systems and processes in place to detect, remove, and report all instances of online child sexual abuse content on their platforms to the National Crime Agency will play a significant role in combatting this threat. Ofcom will play a vital role in ensuring compliance and regulation.”

Mr Critchley added: “With companies being regulated to protect children on their services prior to any harm occurring long term, we believe, if implemented thoroughly and complied with by the companies, that this will lead to a decrease of UK children victimised and harmed online.

“We can no longer talk about online and offline offending as completely separate things. They aren’t.

“The Online Safety Bill will put a legal duty on global social media companies to ensure they prevent and report child abuse images to law enforcement. I believe that it is their legal and moral duty to work much harder to ensure the online communities that they have created are safe for young people.”

Dame Rachel De Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, said she was pleased the Government was bringing the Online Safety Bill back to Parliament.

“This landmark legislation is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect all children online, particularly the most vulnerable,” she said.

“That’s why I am glad that the Children’s Commissioner is now recognised on the face of the Online Safety Bill as a statutory consultee to Ofcom’s codes of practice. This will enable me, in my unique position as representative of children’s rights and views, to oversee the codes which tech firms must follow to comply with the Bill – ensuring that children’s views and experiences are fully understood.

“We cannot allow any more children to suffer. The loss of children by suicide, after exposure to hideous self-harm and suicide content, are tragic reminders of the powerful consequences of online material.

“I am determined to see this Bill pass through Parliament. I will work to ensure that children’s voices and needs underpin each stage of the legislative process. I look forward to us all getting behind such a crucial moment to protect children online.”

The Bill is due to return to Parliament next week. The first amendments have been tabled to the Bill in the Commons for Report Stage on December 5 bu a limited number of clauses in the Bill will go back to Public Bill Committee in the House of Commons for further consideration, before returning for another Report Stage and Third Reading.

As well as making larger technology companies publish a summary of their risk assessments concerning the dangers their platforms pose to children, other moves to boost transparency and accountability include giving Ofcom a new power to require platforms to publish details of enforcement action it takes against them.

Another set of amendments will boost protections for women and girls online by adding the criminal offence of controlling or coercive behaviour to the list of priority offences in the Bill. This means platforms will have to take proactive steps, such as putting in measures to allow users to manage who can interact with them or their content, instead of only responding when this illegal content is flagged to them through complaints

In addition, the Victim’s Commissioner, Domestic Abuse Commissioner and Children’s Commissioner will be added as statutory consultees in the Bill, meaning Ofcom must consult with each when drafting the codes tech firms must follow to comply with the Bill.

Susie Hargreaves OBE, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, said while the return of this Bill “is a relief”, she is concerned that further delays mean that the House of Lords will have even less time to scrutinise the proposed legislation and it could be dropped entirely if it does not receive Royal Assent by April next year.

“This Bill cannot fail,” said Ms Hargreaves. “Children are suffering now. We urge MPs not to lose focus on that and to remember that children and child safety should remain at the core of this Bill. We must never forget that.

“It is important that this legislation gets proper scrutiny, but we must not see a situation arise where years of hard work are wasted.

“Timing has now become super critical. We have seen children are being targeted and coerced in their own bedrooms by criminal abusers into some of the worst abuse our analysts see, including penetrating themselves with household objects.

“We also know, despite our successes making sure child sexual abuse material is not on UK servers, members of the public are still at risk of stumbling across horrendous abuse imagery hosted in other countries.”

She added: “We’ve seen that the threats facing people, particularly children, online are not going away, and we know strong and unequivocal action will be needed if the UK is to realise its aim of being the safest place in the world to be online.

“Now, we need to see lawmakers pull together with a common aim. Police, charities, and big tech businesses are all doing a phenomenal amount of work, and a clear direction from Government will be a welcome boost.”

Sanjay Bhandari, chair of Kick it Out, said: “Users of social media have benefitted from a right that does not exist in the real world. Not only do they have freedom of speech but they have the freedom to force you to hear it. People who play, watch and work in football are often the victims of such vicious trolling

“We welcome the principle of extending the user empowerment provisions in the Bill to close this loophole.

“Social media companies will need to make available technology that enables each of us to have the online experience we desire. We shall review the amendments to the Bill in detail but encourage parliamentarians to move quickly.

Campaigner Lucy Alexander added: “We live in an online world where bullying is 24/7. Young people are bombarded by harmful content online and there is no room for escape. It is on their phones, in their bedrooms and with them on their way to school.

“The Online Safety Bill is a step in the right direction, it will hold social media accountable for protecting children online.

“The new changes to the bill will also see social media firms forced to publish risk assessments so that parents can see for themselves the dangers and risks that face children on these sites.

“It is time to prioritise the safety of our children and young people online.”