Pornography
Online Safety Bill set for Commons return
The Online Safety Bill will be back in the House of Commons this coming Monday after the UK Government promised a series of amendments to improve the Bill.
The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had already indicated that the 'legal but harmful' provision, which would have granted the Secretary of State sweeping powers to determine what speech would be allowed online, would be dropped.
CARE welcomed the news that the 'legal but harmful' provision was to be removed, but warned this would have knock-on consequences for other parts of the legislation.
The proposed legislation will see websites and social media companies required by law to introduce age verification technology to prevent under 18s from accessing online porn.
In 2017, the Digital Economy Act should have led to age checks on all commercial pornography websites. But these measures were dropped by the Government in October 2019.
While the Online Safety Bill goes further by including age checks on social media platforms, the sheer scope of the legislation and the implications for free speech has led some to dub it a 'snooper's charter'.
CARE's Senior Policy Officer, Tim Cairns, said:
CARE welcomes the Government removing the legal but harmful test in so far as it relates to speech. However, we are concerned that this will weaken the Bill in respect of other protections, particularly in respect of pornographic content. Further, we are concerned that the Government’s current proposal may mean that all speech is regulated by tech companies and this may be a detrimental outcome.
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