The laws surrounding keeping people safe online have been in the news periodically since the basis for the Online Safety Bill, the government\u2019s Online Harms white paper, was published in April 2019.<\/p>\n
We want to tell you about the Online Safety Bill and what it will mean if it becomes law.<\/p>\n
What is the Online Safety Bill? <\/strong><\/p>\n A Bill is a proposed law which is put to Parliament by an MP. The Online Safety Bill is brand-new legislation, but Bills may also be updates to existing laws.<\/p>\n The long title for the Online Safety Bill is \u2018a Bill to make provision for and in connection with the regulation by OFCOM of certain internet services; for and in connection with communications offences; and for connected purposes.\u2019<\/p>\n Put more simply, the Bill proposes new laws to keep adults and children safe online by making social media companies more responsible for their users\u2019 safety on their platforms.<\/p>\n How do Bills become law?<\/strong><\/p>\n All Bills begin in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, but they must be approved by both Houses before becoming law.<\/p>\n The passage of Bills through the House of Commons and the House of Lords largely follows the same process:<\/p>\n When a Bill has been through the passage in both Houses, they consider each other\u2019s amendments and when it is finalised it receives royal assent from the King. He formally agrees to make it into an Act of Parliament, and it becomes law.<\/p>\n Why do we need the Online Safety Bill?<\/strong><\/p>\n Some social media content is illegal, harmful or age inappropriate. Examples may include:<\/p>\n The Online Safety Bill aims to tackle such content by forcing social media platforms to remove it.<\/p>\n Though the contents of the Bill have not yet been finalised, it may also:<\/p>\n The Online Safety Bill is being supported by the NSPCC<\/a> who state a poll by YouGov shows overwhelming support for tougher measures to keep children safe online. They call the Bill \u2018an urgent and necessary child protection measure\u2019 and say they are seeing unprecedented levels of grooming and child sexual abuse online.<\/p>\n A statement by the NSPCC\u2019s CEO, Sir Peter Wanless, in January 2023 says that in 2022 the Bill faced delays, meaning children continued to face sexual abuse on an industrial scale. He went on to say this must be the year that legislation delivers systemic change for children.<\/p>\n How will the Online Safety Bill be enforced?<\/strong><\/p>\n In its current form, the law would expect platforms to demonstrate to OFCOM that they have processes in place that meet the requirements of the Bill. Companies that are found not to be compliant may be fined, and OFCOM may take criminal action against senior managers who fail to give information when requested.<\/p>\n OFCOM will have the power to take action against companies no matter where they are based if they are accessible to UK users.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next for the Online Safety Bill?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Online Safety Bill has been subject to numerous delays and postponements, as prime ministers and departmental secretaries have changed. In that time, the original focus has changed substantially from online abuse and harassment to child protection, suicide and self-harm.<\/p>\n At the time of writing, it has been through the House of Commons and is at committee stage in the House of Lords:<\/p>\n There is no timetable yet for the Bill to be completed.<\/p>\n AGR Law<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019re an award-winning law firm with offices in Leicester and Northampton. We also offer virtual appointments.<\/p>\n We advise individuals, families and businesses, specialising in family law, immigration and personal and commercial services. \u00a0Contact us on 0116 340 0094 or hello@agrlaw.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The laws surrounding keeping people safe online have been in the news periodically since the basis for the Online Safety Bill, the government\u2019s Online Harms white paper, was published in April 2019. We want to tell you about the Online Safety Bill and what it will mean if it becomes law. What is the Online … Continue reading The Online Safety Bill \u2013 what will it mean for you?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14944,"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14941\/revisions\/14944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrlaw.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\n