The Online Safety Bill has received its fair share of controversy over recent months. The government's postponement of the bill pending Boris Johnson's replacement revived criticism of the proposals. These have focused mainly on concerns that the regulation of online platforms will stifle freedom of expression and lead to unwarranted surveillance of private online communications. Contrast these with calls from campaigners and advocates of children's rights, who have been urging ministers to prioritise children's safety and hold the tech industry to account through these reforms without delay.
Reading these debates, it is easy to forget that the tech industry, or at least the largest online platforms, have been taking important steps to protect children. Leading social media platforms and search engines, including Meta, TikTok and Google have been taking voluntary action to protect children in the digital environment for some time now. This includes joining industry-wide coalitions and cross-sector alliances to invest in new technologies, share knowledge and good practices and take collective action to prevent and respond to online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Despite these important efforts, reports of online child sexual exploitation and abuse have been growing and the ages of child survivors are getting younger and younger by the year. Internet Watch Foundation reports that, in 2021, almost seven in 10 instances of child sexual abuse involved 11- to 13-year-olds. Imagery of children under the age of six was also more likely to involve the most serious forms of abuse. Clearly, self-regulation by the tech industry is not enough.
Landmark legislation
The Online Safety Bill is a landmark piece of legislation and would take the fight against online child sexual exploitation and abuse to the next level. Its provisions include imposing legal requirements on internet service providers which allow user-generated content (user-to-user services) and providers of search services to assess the risks of harm to their users, take steps to mitigate and manage the risks arising from illegal content and activity, put systems and processes in place to allow reporting by users and establish user-friendly complaints procedures. The bill also includes provisions requiring providers to report detected but unreported child sexual exploitation and abuse content to the National Crime Agency, the scope of which has led to debates on the implications for end-to-end encrypted communications and rights to privacy. The bill confers new powers on Ofcom to act as the independent regulator to enforce this regime.
However, the Online Safety Bill does not stop there. Providers of online user-to-user services and search services which are likely to be accessed by children are required to take steps to mitigate and manage content and activity that is harmful to children. Further still, larger providers of user-to-user services have additional duties in relation to content that is harmful to adults, which have sparked controversy on the grounds of free speech. Provisions designed to protect children from online child sexual exploitation and abuse are therefore part and parcel of this broader framework to ensure the safety, not only of children, but also adults online.
The UK is by no means alone in developing bills to protect online safety. Similar efforts have taken place in the US, through the Kids Online Safety Bill and Ireland, through the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill. These efforts follow the path blazed by Australia, which was the first country to pass online safety legislation and establish a dedicated independent regulator for online safety, the eSafety Commissioner.
Similar developments are also taking place at the regional and international levels. The EU has published a draft of a more targeted set of regulations, requiring online service providers to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse, encompassing both child sexual abuse material and indicators of grooming. In addition, the UN is developing a new International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes. Suggestions have been made that it should include preventative measures for individuals, states and businesses to limit the risk of information and communication technologies being used to perpetrate child sexual exploitation and abuse. The tide may well be changing towards the mandatory regulation of online platforms to prevent and respond to online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Fundamental obligations
As the Online Safety Bill lingers precariously, we should not lose sight of the UK's fundamental obligations to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse. As a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UK has obligations to respect, protect and fulfil children's rights, including the right to protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, regardless of whether it involves the use of digital technologies. This includes making laws to ensure that businesses comply with their obligations to prevent their networks and services from being used to perpetrate or contribute to the sexual abuse or exploitation of children and to provide survivors with prompt and effective remedies. The Online Safety Bill is an important opportunity for the UK to live up to these fundamental obligations.
The obligation to take the best interests of the child as a primary consideration, applies no less to the drafting of the Online Safety Bill as it does to decision-making in care cases. This is a fundamental principle and right enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the UK is bound to apply in all decisions affecting children. As we debate the fate of the Online Safety Bill, where tensions arise between the right of the child to protection, and the rights to privacy or freedom of expression (which are not and never have been absolute rights), the solutions reached must place what is best for children at the forefront.
Particular attention must also be paid to what children and survivors are telling us. The risks of re-traumatisation are profound, as sexual abuse content can be redistributed and circulated across the internet and across borders with limited channels for survivors to use to ensure its swift removal. The requirements imposed on online providers in the bill are essential for enforcing concerted action across the industry to mitigate the risks of such harm and preventing the proliferation of abusive material.
Although we are entering somewhat uncharted territory through the Online Safety Bill, we should keep in mind that legal reform is not a one-off exercise. Continuous monitoring of how the law is implemented after adoption is part of the legislative process, to ensure that it is fit for purpose and is having the desired result. If it is not, evidence-based adjustments, grounded in the experiences of children, must be made. With the constant evolution of digital technologies and evolving international laws, ongoing monitoring of the law after adoption becomes more important than ever.
It is undeniable that strong legislation is just one piece of the jigsaw and must go hand-in-hand with a broader approach to combating online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The implementation of the bill depends on a well-resourced and trained independent regulator to enforce the regulatory regime. Educating children, parents and carers about children's rights in the digital environment and safe online practices is essential. Professionals and practitioners working with children should also receive periodic training on identifying children at risk online and available reporting mechanisms and support services. The passing of the Online Safety Bill is just the start.
In direct response to these issues, Coram International has been working with Unicef and partners to develop guidance on legislating for the digital age. The recent publication, Legislating for the Digital Age, takes readers through the minimum and recommended standards required under international law for developing robust legislation to protect children from online child sexual exploitation and abuse. Topics include how to develop evidence-based legislation, building stakeholder engagement and identifying catalysts for legal reform, selecting appropriate methods of legislative reform, criminalising online child sexual exploitation and abuse and establishing procedures and methods of investigation, legislating to ensure support, rehabilitation, reintegration and redress for survivors, and business regulation. The Online Safety Bill, as featured in the guide, is an important vehicle for the UK to live up to its obligations to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse and has the potential to be an international model of good practice in this area.
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Awaz Raoof is author of Legislating for the Digital Age: Global Guide on Improving Legislative Frameworks to Protect Children from Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse coraminternational.org
FURTHER READING
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Legislating for the Digital Age: Global Guide on Improving Legislative Frameworks to Protect Children from Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Unicef, 2022
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Proposals on objectives and scope of the Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes, UN, 2022
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Brave Movement, www.bravemovement.org
