Children deserve protection online

It should go without saying that children must not be force-fed violence or have easy access to pornography and other harmful material. Before the advent of the internet, this was relatively easy to ensure because of strict age restrictions on the sale of magazines and films.

But the rapid expansion of social media platforms and the ubiquity of smartphones have created a clear and present danger to the wellbeing of our children. The Government has responded to this with the Online Safety Act, which requires Ofcom to bring forward specific proposals to protect children from damaging imagery and content online.

The regulator’s plans, now published, are welcome. They are also, as Michelle Donelan, the Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, has said, only the beginning. Social media firms will be required to introduce robust checks, including the use of photo ID such as passports, to identify children using sites and protect them from harm online. Self-declaration of age will be banned.

The practicalities of this have yet to be fully worked out and will need strong parental guidance. It also requires the full-hearted support of the social media giants, who have hitherto seemed reluctant to clean up their act.

It should not have taken six years of wrangling over this legislation before concrete proposals could be made, and we are still in the consultation phase. Partly this was to ensure that the legislation was watertight – and some think that it still isn’t – but it also owes much to pushback from the companies.

Tech firms that fail to comply with the new regime will face fines of up to 10 per cent of their global turnover. That would amount to £11 billion for a big player such as Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram. But will such sanctions really be imposed and, if so, are they realistic since the headquarters are in America?

The hope is that, if these reforms are effective, they will ensure that children are able to grow up less in thrall to the magnetic draw of social media, especially if their peers are all in the same position.

Understanding the impact of addictive features and damaging algorithms is also an essential component of this approach. As Ms Donelan said, the threat to their offspring is not something parents can deal with alone. It is shameful that the corporate giants behind these platforms need to be pushed into protecting the most vulnerable in society.