What's the problem?
The Online Safety Act has been a disaster. Rather than protect children, millions of adults are facing widespread censorship, and teenagers are having their freedom of expression restricted.
Here are some of the key problems with the law:
Wrongful Censorship: The law places huge liabilities and threats of jail on platforms if they don't censor the right content. It does little to protect freedom of expression. The results are in. Footage of protest censored on X. Subreddits about stopping smoking, sexual health, and the news age-gated and shadow-banned. Websites geo-blocking the UK and community forums closing. ORG is tracking this censorship on our Blocked webpage.
Handing data to unregulated age assurance providers: Millions of men and women are being forced to expose personal data to companies to get verified. Some of these have problematic privacy policies. Many are based in other countries, and none of them are required to meet a regulated standard.
Restricting freedom of expression: The Government believes 16 is old enough to vote. Yet older teenagers are still facing restrictions to their ability to communicate due to the Act. Bluesky has removed the ability to send direct messages to under 18s. Xbox has restricted the ability to message or chat to people in video games. Young people often struggle to make friends, and we are now restricting their freedom of expression rights in ways that will restrict their ability to form friendships.
Pushing young people to less regulated spaces: Anyone can easily by-pass this law with a VPN. Young people, especially in older age-groups, will always find ways to circumnavigate restrictions. That is why education is so vital. We are teaching young people to be deceptive and pushing them towards even less regulated online spaces where they risk exploitation.
Why write to your MP?
Over 400,000 people have signed a petition against the act. The Government's response has been to tell them they are on the side of predators. This is totally unacceptable. If the Government is prepared to treat our reasonable concerns with such disdain, then we must now act. Let your MP know the strength of your feeling.
A solution to this mess!
We all want children to be protected online. Open Rights Group has set out a detailed report as to how the Online Safety Act could be sent back to the drawing board an instead a rights based approach could be adopted. If the Government presses ahead with this Act, we have also set out how it can act to regulate the Age Assurance industry.
