Child safety expert: ‘Online Safety Bill should protect children but not restrict free speech’

The Government’s Online Safety Bill is worryingly vague on free speech protections, an expert on children’s digital safety has warned.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Baroness Kidron — who sat on the pre-legislative committee responsible for examining the draft Bill — called for the Government’s proposals to be simplified and clarified.

The Crossbench Peer was instrumental in the creation and implementation of the Children’s Code – a set of standards designed to protect children from online abuse and exploitation.

Unnecessary

Lady Kidron said she believes it is possible for the Bill to deliver strong protections for children using digital technology without stifling free speech.

Reflecting on her involvement in scrutinising the draft legislation, she said: “Creating some sort of new soft law didn’t seem necessary to us and we had a different route.”

“The UK already has equality legislation and laws on sexual discrimination. All you need to do is to tell the companies that we expect them to deal with these areas.”

She added: “I am hugely disappointed the Government did not respond more cleverly to the work of the pre-legislative committee because the whole phrase ‘legal but harmful’ is deeply worrying.”

the whole phrase ‘legal but harmful’ is deeply worrying

‘Suppressing free speech’

Last week, Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss said the Online Safety Bill must allow freedom of speech to flourish, as well as protect under-18s from harmful content.

Truss was speaking to members of the public in Leigh on GB News’s The People’s Forum, during which she responded to a question from a university student with concerns about the Bill.

During recent leadership hustings, Rishi Sunak also spoke of reworking the Online Safety Bill, saying it must not stray “into the territory of suppressing free speech”.

MPs will debate the Bill again in the autumn before sending it to the House of Lords where there will be several months of further scrutiny.