UK Government planning to strengthen online safety rules, minister says

The Online Safety Act is not the “end of the conversation” to make the internet safer for users, UK transport secretary Heidi Alexander has said.  

Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Alexander confirmed the UK Government is looking into further regulation to keep pace with online harms.   

Ofcom is amidst its phased implementation of the act, which will make organisations legally responsible for keeping people, particularly children, safe.   

Tech firms have until 25 July to have robust age checks in place to prevent children from accessing harmful content. Those that fail to comply with this duty, could face a fine of up to £18m or 10 per cent of their annual global turnover – whichever is greater.   

Alexander said the government is not going to “sit back and wait”, adding the technology secretary Peter Kyle is keeping measures “under review”, particularly concerning the spread of harmful but legal content such as posts that promote eating disorder behaviour.   

She said: “It is now [up] to the technology firms to put in these really robust safeguards to make sure that they are verifying the age of people that are using their platforms, and they are not pumping that harmful content into the feed of kids on platforms such Instagram [and] TikTok.   

“We are very clear as a government that this is the foundation for a safer online experience for children. But it is not the end of the conversation.”  

The landmark legislation has come under fire from campaigners for not going far enough. Ian Russel, chair of the Molly Rose Foundation set up in memory of his daughter Molly, who took her own life in 2017, after viewing harmful content online, urged Ofcom to do more and “push back” on the act’s weakness so that ministers make the necessary changes.  

He said: “I think is quite clear that Ofcom as a regulator need to do more than just be good at spinning their PR, they need to act within the bounds of the act to the strongest possible way and they’re not doing that, they are sitting in the middle pushed to one side by families who have lost people like me and pushed to the other side by the power of the big tech platforms.”  

Earlier this month, a report by the UK technology committee following its inquiry into social media, misinformation and harmful algorithms, found the act would not keep users safe as it fails to address misinformation.   

The inquiry, launched following the Southport attacks, found the act would have made “little difference to the online environment” that triggered the string of violent riots across the UK last summer, adding its measures on misinformation “fell short”.  

The committee warned the act will leave “the public vulnerable to a repeat of last summer’s crisis”, unless it is updated to include measures to target the “algorithmic amplification of legal but harmful, such as misinformation”.     

Labour MP Chi Onwurah, chair of the committee, said: “It's clear that the Online Safety Act just isn’t up to scratch. The government needs to go further to tackle the pervasive spread of misinformation that causes harm but doesn’t cross the line into illegality.”  

The report also highlighted that the act was already “out of date”, as it doesn’t “adequately address” the threat posed by generative artificial intelligence (AI), adding there was “contradiction and confusion between regulators and government over the capabilities, limitations and principles behind the Online Safety Act.”  

The report said: “Ofcom at times appeared complacent in its approach to public safety online, failing to live up to its role as the UK’s online safety regulator and slipping into the role of mediator between the industry and the consumer.”  

Also, speaking to Kuenssberg, Ofcom chief executive Melanie Dawes acknowledged there is a “challenging path ahead”, adding that legislation may need to change to cover new forms of AI.  

However, Russell, warned the law is “moving too slowly to keep pace with tech”, calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to deliver on the election pledge to introduce tougher laws to keep children safe online.