“My Government will lead the way in ensuring internet safety for
all, especially for children, whilst harnessing the benefits of a
free, open and secure internet.”
The purpose of the draft Bill is to:
-
● Introduce ground-breaking laws to keep people safe online
whilst ensuring that users’ rights, including freedom of
expression, are protected online.
-
● Build public trust by making companies responsible for
their users’ safety online, whilst supporting a thriving and
fast growing digital sector.
-
● Designate Ofcom as the independent online safety regulator.
The main benefits of the draft Bill would be:
-
● Delivering our manifesto commitment to make the UK the
safest place in the world to be online, through improving
protections for users, especially children, whilst protecting
freedom of expression.
-
● Ensuring there is no safe space for criminal content and
activity online.
-
● Restoring public trust in the services that online
platforms offer and supporting a
thriving, fast growing digital sector.
The main elements of the draft Bill are:
-
● Placing a duty of care on companies to improve the safety
of their users online. This will require them to tackle
illegal content on their services and to protect children
from harmful content and activity online. They must seriously
consider the risks their services pose to users and take
action to protect them.
-
● Requiring major platforms to set out clearly in their terms
and conditions what legal content is unacceptable on their
platform and enforce these consistently and transparently.
-
● Requiring platforms to have effective and accessible user
reporting and redress mechanisms to report concerns about
harmful content, and challenge infringement of rights (such
as wrongful takedown).
-
● Designating Ofcom as the independent online safety
regulator and giving it a suite of robust enforcement powers
to uphold the regulation. This will include very large fines
of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of annual global turnover
- whichever is greater - as well as business disruption
measures. The Government
94
expects Ofcom to prioritise enforcement action where children’s
safety has been compromised.
● Boosting public resilience to disinformation through media
literacy and supporting research on misinformation and
disinformation.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to the whole of the UK.
Key facts
-
● In April 2020, internet users in the UK spent an average of
4 hours 2 minutes online each day, a record figure. However,
over three quarters of UK adults express a concern about
going online.
-
● Fewer parents also feel the benefits outweigh the risks of
their children being online (falling from 65 per cent in 2015
to 55 per cent in 2019).
●
In a month-long period during 2020, the Internet Watch Foundation
and its
partners
blocked
at least 8.8 million attempts by UK internet users to access
videos and images of children suffering sexual abuse.
● During lockdown, research by YouGov shows that 47 per cent of
children and
teens have
seen
content they would rather avoid, leaving them feeling
uncomfortable (29 per cent), scared (23 per cent), and confused
(19 per cent).
One in seven (13 per cent) were exposed to harmful content on a
daily basis.
There were more than 69 million images and videos related to
child sexual
exploitation and abuse referred by US technology companies to the
National
Center for
Missing
and Exploited Children in 2019, an increase of more than 50
per cent on the previous year.
●
●
In March 2021, 35 per cent of people used social media as a
source of
information about the pandemic. Social media has been the biggest
source of
false or misleading
information
about 5G technologies and COVID-19
vaccinations during the pandemic.
