How long has this taken? Internet has been around since the early 1990's. Child safety online has always been a concern for parents. Not sure how feasible the mew law will be or how many companies such as Facebook and Instagram will abide to it, but it's a step in the right direction and imho, something they should of done years ago. Internet safety legislation that will require social media companies to keep children safe online has passed into law in the UK. The Online Safety Act received royal assent in Parliament on Thursday, bringing the new rules into effect. Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said it meant the UK would become “the safest place to be online in the world”. Today will go down as an historic moment that ensures the online safety of British society not only now, but for decades to come Michelle Donelan Social media platforms will be required to prevent and rapidly remove illegal content – such as terrorism and revenge pornography – and stop children from seeing harmful material such as bullying or self-harm content by enforcing age limits and using age-checking measures. The rules also require sites to give adults more control over what they see online, offer clear and accessible ways for users to report problems and be transparent about the dangers posed to children on their sites by publishing risk assessments. Those that fail to comply will face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of annual global revenue, meaning potentially billions of pounds for the biggest firms. In the most extreme cases, tech bosses could even face prison. “Today will go down as an historic moment that ensures the online safety of British society not only now, but for decades to come,” Ms Donelan said. “I am immensely proud of the work that has gone into the Online Safety Act from its very inception to it becoming law today. “The Bill protects free speech, empowers adults and will ensure that platforms remove illegal content. At the heart of this Bill, however, is the protection of children. “I would like to thank the campaigners, parliamentarians, survivors of abuse and charities that have worked tirelessly, not only to get this Act over the finishing line, but to ensure that it will make the UK the safest place to be online in the world.” Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “This landmark law sends a clear message to criminals – whether it’s on our streets, behind closed doors or in far-flung corners of the internet, there will be no hiding place for their vile crimes. “The Online Safety Act’s strongest protections are for children. Social media companies will be held to account for the appalling scale of child sexual abuse occurring on their platforms and our children will be safer. “We are determined to combat the evil of child sexual exploitation wherever it is found, and this Act is a big step forward.” Communications regulator Ofcom is expected to set out plans for its new powers in the coming weeks. The Government confirmed that the majority of the Act’s provisions would commence in two months’ time, but said Ofcom would immediately begin work on tackling illegal content, with a consultation process launching on November 9. Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said: “These new laws give Ofcom the power to start making a difference in creating a safer life online for children and adults in the UK. “We’ve already trained and hired expert teams with experience across the online sector, and today we’re setting out a clear timeline for holding tech firms to account. The Online Safety Act is an important first step towards making the UK the safest place for a child to be online Lynn Perry “Ofcom is not a censor, and our new powers are not about taking content down. Our job is to tackle the root causes of harm. We will set new standards online, making sure sites and apps are safer by design. “Importantly, we’ll also take full account of people’s rights to privacy and freedom of expression. We know a safer life online cannot be achieved overnight, but Ofcom is ready to meet the scale and urgency of the challenge.” Barnardo’s chief executive Lynn Perry said: “The Online Safety Act is an important first step towards making the UK the safest place for a child to be online. “Through our frontline work across the UK, we support children whose mental health and understanding of healthy relationships are damaged by what they see online. We welcome the new duty placed on pornography sites to verify that users are over 18, which will help to stop children from viewing this type of harmful content. “There is much more work to be done here and we will continue to work with the Government on implementing this legislation, the forthcoming review into pornography and ensuring we keep ahead of emerging online threats, such as AI and virtual reality, to protect our children.” NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said the passing of the Act was a “watershed moment” meaning children across the country will be “fundamentally safer”. “The NSPCC will continue to ensure there is a rigorous focus on children by everyone involved in regulation. Companies should be acting now, because the ultimate penalties for failure will be eye-watering fines and, crucially, criminal sanctions,” he said.
What I don’t have a sense of is how this will work in practice, but maybe that will become clearer. My feeling is that the tech companies could already be liable for enormous fines simply on the basis of what is online today. They should be responsible for what they publish and protect children. I think this is an issue where this marks the end of the beginning rather than beginning of the end.
Very true, and we could be talking millions of pounds. Speaking purely from the tech side, I would expect software vendors to integrate some sort of "age check" barrier with a 'Parental Control' password system perhaps? Have it run on a different script and interact with the login page privately on a monitored network. It's pretty easy to encrypt to prevent hackers as well, which would be another major hurdle the law would have to take in consideration.
It won't. What will happen is companies will end up blocking UK IPs because it won't be worth the traffic.
Facebook? Twitter? They won’t want to miss out on the UK. We’d have to then invent our own, UK versions, FaceyMcFacebook and TalkShyte.
If the Tories **** block the entire nation, it’ll be the final nail in their coffin. Labour needs to make an urgent gesture to working men and women on this one.
I think people underestimate how much social media companies (granted, Twitter excepted after Musk basically dismantled the department) already invest in policing vile/violent/criminal content. They already have literal buildings full of people reviewing flagged content by hand, and it's a losing battle (not to mention mentally damaging to the employees, on account of some of the stuff they see). They're already using specially trained algorithms and AI to assist. At some point operating in the country will simply become unprofitable and they'll just stop operating there. The simple reality is that policing content is a reactive activity and some will always slip through. Couple that with extremely draconian fines and penalties and it's inevitable that companies won't continue operations.
