The Online Safety Act provides vital protection against harm – but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved
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4 min read
The Liberal Democrats have always been clear: protecting children online is a moral imperative.
That’s why we gave our support to the Online Safety Act during its passage through Parliament. For too long, harmful content – from violent pornography to suicide ideation – has been allowed to fester in an online wild west. These threats to children’s wellbeing are well-documented, and we have recognised that urgent action is needed to tackle harmful platforms that profit from clicks.
The legislation’s provisions forcing internet companies to finally take action against illegal content such as child sexual abuse and exploitation are long overdue. Heeding calls to scrap the legislation would therefore be a big mistake. These protections were too hard won, and are too important to turn back on now.
However, there are significant concerns about the legislation’s roll-out that threaten to undermine these vital aims.
When platforms limit access to political content from younger users, we risk splitting a generation into silos
For example, the fact that age assurance systems safeguarding children from pornographic content can simply be sidestepped via Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs. Rather than following Russia, China and North Korea down the route of restricting VPNs, the government needs to recognise that this will always be a risk and help parents to keep their children safe online regardless – including through education at school and guidance for parents.
Parallel concerns have been voiced regarding the privacy implications of the third-party age assurance systems now being used on pornography sites.
There are also issues to be resolved in how the legislation’s implementation is impacting educational resources and forums.
Termed a Category 1 service under the act, Wikipedia is seen as one of the largest and riskiest platforms online, capable of attracting a high number of users. As such, Wikipedia may be required to age-verify its moderators – a step it is unwilling to take.
Wikipedia represents one of humanity’s greatest collaborative knowledge projects, and extra verification requirements could fundamentally alter how this resource operates.
I have consistently urged the government to change these rules to focus not on how much traffic a website receives, but rather on the type of content it produces. This would mean websites hosting harmful material would be subject to more robust Category 1 regulations, whereas information-sharing projects such as Wikipedia would not.
Age-gating of political content on social media represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the legislation’s purpose. Young people have every right to engage in discourse; political interest should be encouraged, not restricted.
When platforms limit access to political content from younger users, we risk splitting a generation into silos – unable to access the range of information and varied opinions hard-fought for by its predecessors.
Even more concerning is that forums dealing with LGBTQ+ rights, sexual health, and other sensitive topics are also being age-gated. These forums are often lifelines for vulnerable, confused teenagers seeking advice and support.
Liberal Democrats and others fought to ensure the legislation includes duties to protect people’s rights to free expression and privacy – it is critical that those duties are properly upheld. This is a crucial opportunity to tackle foul content that has plagued the internet for too long, but getting it right requires acknowledging mistakes and having the courage to course-correct.
This is why the Liberal Democrats are calling for comprehensive post-legislative scrutiny. Parliament must examine how the legislation is working in practice and determine whether changes are needed, either to its implementation or to the legislative framework itself.
Parliament should convene a cross-party committee of both MPs and peers to closely examine these issues, and the government should act on their findings.
Parliamentarians need the opportunity to scrutinise the work of Ofcom and the government throughout this rollout – as well as the steps social media firms and other internet companies are taking – to ensure that this legislation does what it says on the tin: keeps children safe online.
Online safety is one of the crucial issues of our time. We owe it to our young people to get this right.
Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology and MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted
