Controversial online safety bill to receive second reading by MPs
Parliamentarians are to debate the government’s Online Safety Bill. It will require social media platforms, search engines and other apps and websites allowing people to post content to improve the way they protect their users.
Ofcom, the regulator, will have the power to fine companies failing to comply with the laws up to ten per cent of their annual global turnover, force them to improve their practices and block non-compliant sites. Crucially, the laws have strong measures to safeguard children from harmful content such as pornography and child sexual abuse.
Ahead of Tuesday’s debate, the government launched the next phase of its Online Media Literacy Strategy. It says it aims to help vulnerable and hard-to-reach people navigate the internet safely and teach them to spot falsities online.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will spend £2.5 million to advance the plan through the next year including on training, research and providing expert advice. This includes a new Media Literacy Taskforce featuring experts from a range of disciplines and a boost to the Media Literacy Fund, which gives teachers and local service providers the skills they need to teach people to improve their critical thinking of what they see online.
Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “The time has come to properly protect people online and this week MPs will debate the most important legislation in the internet age.
“Our groundbreaking Online Safety Bill will make the UK the safest place to surf the web. It has been significantly strengthened following a lengthy period of engagement with people in politics, wider society and industry.
“We want to arm everyone with the skills to navigate the internet safely, so today we’re also announcing a funding boost and plans for experts to join forces with the government to help people spot dodgy information online.”
Ofcom research shows adults are often overconfident in their ability to detect disinformation and only 32 per cent of children aged 12 to 17 know how to use online flagging or reporting functions.
However the bill has received extensive criticism, especially relating to concerns over freedom of expression. In a joint opinion piece in today’s Times, Conservative MP Steve Baker and LSE Professor Paul Dolan expressed such reservations, writing that “… when social media platforms become required by law to remove content, they will almost certainly start to remove increasing amounts and types of content. Under the threat of penalties, social media companies won’t risk allowing content that could come close to ‘legal but harmful’ to remain on its platform. Free speech and free discussion on the internet will die a slow and painful death.”
However other groups, including organisations campaigning against sexual abuse, have called for the bill to be tougher.
The International Justice Mission charity told the BBC over the weekend that: “The bill needs to go further in recognising that these platforms aren’t just where abusive material is published, the platforms are used as tools to commit abuse.”
It said children are often abused in places like the Philippines “while remote offenders in places like the UK pay to direct and view the abuse in real time”.
