Online Safety Bill set for first major parliamentary scrutiny

On Tuesday 19 April, MPs will have the opportunity to debate the general principles of the Online Safety Bill for the first time.

Introduced by the UK Government earlier this year, the legislation has already provoked a strong reaction.

Its second reading debate is the first time the proposed law will be given scrutiny in parliament by MPs. A draft version last year was looked at by different committees, including a joint committee of both Peers and MPs.

The bill itself is vast, running to hundreds of pages and the changes it proposes to make are broad.

Of particular interest to CARE are the parts that relate to protecting under 18s from explicit, adult content online.

Research shows that half of 11–13-year-olds have viewed porn at some point, rising to two thirds of 14-15-year-olds. And 61% of 11-14-year-olds did so accidently.

Age controls will help protect children, especially from inadvertently coming across online porn.

However, there are issues with the bill at the moment in terms of a lack of clarity about how age checks will work, how they will be enforced and whether sites will be forced to remove images of child sexual abuse and sexually violent material.

CARE will be working with MPs to see these concerns (and others) raised, to put pressure on the government to make necessary improvements to the proposed law.

Another area of interest are the parts of the legislation which engage with freedom of expression online.

Critics have warned that the proposal to tackle ‘legal but harmful’ content will have chilling consequences for free speech.

Much will depend on the precise definitions that are used and some MPs have already made clear the Bill goes too far in giving power to social media companies.

Here are some ways you can pray about the bill:

• Pray for MPs that they will debate graciously and intelligently and be willing to grapple with hard decisions.
• Pray for MPs CARE is supporting as we seek to raise awareness over weaknesses in the Bill.
• Pray that age checks on all online pornography will be introduced.
• Pray that freedom of expression online (including freedom to promote Christian teaching) will be protected.

• Read our Q&A on the aims of the Online Safety Bill
• Discover 5 ways porn can harm young people