One billion young people are online, making up one in three internet users worldwide. Yet the digital world still largely fails to acknowledge their presence, preferring instead to treat ‘all users equally’. The digital world is not optional for young people. It is essential, therefore that digital services and products treat young people according to their age and takes account of the needs of young people, from the design stage. In any area where the digital world affects young people, foreseeable risks must be identified and mitigated. The Online Harms Bill must capture any and all online services that create risks or facilitate or cause harms to children, including private messaging. Regulated services must be required to conduct regular Child Impact Assessments to reveal known harms, unintended consequences and emerging risks. These must feed into a continual drive to improve knowledge of the risks children face. Regulated services must also ensure their services meet minimum standards laid down by the regulator, provide age-appropriate default settings and account for the impacts of their algorithms.Regulated services must publish their terms in ways their users can understand and be accountable for upholding their own community guidelines, terms and conditions, and privacy notices. The harms within the scope of the Bill must include known harms, both legal and illegal. But the regulation must be flexible enough to take account of new and emerging harms as well. The Regulator must act in the best interests of children at all times and have regard to the UK’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Many service providers will need to establish the age of their users in order to give young people the specific protection to which they are entitled. Those that don’t will have to provide services appropriate for all users, including the very youngest. The Regulator must enforce the duty of care and be provided with sufficient resources to overcome the current asymmetry of arms. The Regulator must have an escalating ladder of enforcement powers, including significant corporate fines, and the power to require closure or change of individual features or services which pose a risk to children. Its powers must be on the face of the Bill and guidance and codes of practice must have a statutory footing. Government should develop open systems through which independent researchers can access privately held data to understand what works in keeping children safer online. The Online Harms Bill is an opportunity for the UK to show global leadership and secure its reputation for keeping children safe, both now and into the future.
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Building the Digital World that Young People Deserve
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