Online Safety Bill latest
The government agreed to toughen a proposed law with an amendment to the long-delayed Online Safety Bill which proposes jail sentences of up to two years for tech bosses for failing to protect children from content such as child abuse and self- harm. Technology executives could be jailed if they “consent or connive” to ignoring the new rules, according to a report in Reuters.
Child safety activist Teched-Off has stepped up the pressure on Online Abuse legislators, releasing YouGov research that indicates that most parents (78%) aren’t fully confident they’ve set adequate controls on their children’s devices, with 11% failing set any controls at all. Of the parents who haven’t set controls, 38% haven’t done so because they find them too confusing.
With children receiving their first phone at increasingly young ages, they are being lured into a world in which premature sexualisation is a danger. A parallel study by Teched Off found that 80% of parents are worried that their child/children is/are addicted to a device. “We’ve let tech organisations monetise our children’s attention and [they] are paying a profound price,” said Teched-Off founder Miranda Wilson, “TikTok, Instagram, SnapChat and YouTube revenues are all in the billions in no small part thanks to us parents losing control.”
Britain, like the European Union, has been grappling to protect social media users, and in particular children, from harmful content without damaging free speech. The UK bill was originally designed to create one of the toughest regimes for regulating platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. It aimed to make companies stamp out illegal content on their sites, such as revenge pornography and encouraging suicide.
Industry body techUK said threatening executives with jail would not help deliver an effective regime to protect children, but it would damage Britain’s digital economy. The bill’s ‘teeth’ will ensure compliance, it said, but the significant legal jeopardy for firms would make Britain a less attractive destination for investors.