Children must be protected online

Sometime on Tuesday the Online Safety Bill is expected to complete its parliamentary stages. This newspaper has long championed such legislation as a means of stopping harmful internet content being seen routinely by children, often unsolicitedly.

But what started life as an attempt to impose a statutory duty of care on social media giants turned into a fight between the Government, the big internet companies and free speech campaigners over what they claimed was an attempt to control what people could say and think online.

This was never going to be an easy law to frame precisely because it will impose regulatory oversight for what in normal circumstances would be the freedom to express an opinion without state interference. But the communications revolution of the past 20 years has changed the dynamic. 

Social media platforms serve to amplify the nastier sides of human life and offer the opportunity for the dissemination of appalling images and views to those who in the past would have been unable to access them.

The Big Tech companies and social media platforms have railed against provisions to force them to allow their encrypted messages to be monitored for harmful content.

They argue they are simply public squares where people can interact, and if that sometimes leads to unfortunate consequences, such as bullying or exposure to extreme content, then it is the price to be paid for living in a free society. If the wellbeing of children is seriously to be prioritised, then it is necessary to enforce age limits and limit the use of algorithms that target users, often vulnerable young people.

The Government has had to bow to these concerns to get its Bill through the Lords. The arbitrary removal of content deemed to be “inappropriate” will be disallowed and Ofcom, the tech regulator, would only require companies to scan their encrypted networks when a technology was developed capable of doing so. That could be years away. 

Will these changes undermine the original aims of the Bill, which has strong public support? Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly took her own life after viewing harmful online content, acknowledged that the law was not perfect but he said the test will be whether it makes the online world safer for children. We will be watching closely to see that it does.