What has happened to the Online Safety Bill?

The recently created Online Safety Bill was originally designed to protect the most vulnerable in society from online harm. Since the death of teenager Molly Russell, who viewed content relating to suicide and self-harm before taking her own life, concerns have grown about the continued availability of such material. But recent attempts to water the Bill down will seriously damage it's effectiveness. 

How was the Online Safety Bill drafted?

The Bill was drafted to include a provision that the biggest and most influential social media platforms would have to take action to tackle such harmful material, even if it was strictly legal. 

The intention behind this was to ensure that vulnerable people weren't influenced by harmful content, even to the extent of taking their own lives. 

The proposals were ambitious, but the intention and motivation behind the original drafting seemed to be designed to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

What are Proposed Amendments to the Online Safety Bill?

The requirement for tech companies to remove harmful content has been replaced with a requirement for these companies to create more filters so that users themselves can remove content they don't want to see. This is clearly a very watered down version of the original drafting and will not protect those who are too young, or perhaps to ill to make decisions to protect themselves.

The arguments raised by those with vested interests, which led to the amendment, centred around freedom of speech and the perceived unfairness of forcing social media and other online companies to take action. 

One argument, put forward by Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan, is that adults will have more control over the content they can see online. However, this does not address protection for the most vulnerable.

Is there enough protection online?

The law says that children should be prevented from being able to access harmful and inappropriate material. However, the tragic deaths of Molly Russell and others demonstrates just how weak these provisions are, and how easy to get around, for anyone with even the most rudimentary IT skills. 

Dismay has been voiced by those who work with victims in this area, including the Samaritans, by the proposed amendments to the Bill. The Samaritans pointed out that even when someone becomes an adult, they can still be seriously harmed by some of the material which is available online. People who have pre-existing issues with their mental health are likely to be at a higher risk of harm. 

If the tech companies don't comply with the Bill, they can be fined up to 10% of their worldwide profits, but it seems that this entirely defeats the object of the original Bill, which was to prevent this harmful content being available in the first place.  

There will be stricter provisions in the Bill, requiring tech companies to confirm how they check the age of users, as this is key to ensuring that children are protected. How this can be successfully achieved remains an unknown. 

Removing Harmful Online Content

Victims of harmful online content and publications will have to continue to rely on the existing law, including provisions surrounding defamation, breach of privacy, misuse of personal data and other causes of action. This is particularly distressing for individuals who are victims of image based abuse, formerly known as "revenge porn".

It remains the case that individuals regularly take matters into their own hands and take legal steps to remove online harmful content and to claim compensation from those who have published abusive material.

If you are concerned about the effect of online content upon your children, or if there is abusive online content published about you online, you should contact the police and the social media platform initially.  Contact us to speak to a specialist today about what services we can offer, as well as taking your own action.