UK going ‘backwards’ on online safety, Molly Russell’s father tells Starmer

The begetter of a teenage miss who killed herself aft viewing harmful contented connected societal media has told Sir Keir Starmer that the UK is “going backwards” connected online safety.

Ian Russell, president of the Molly Rose Foundation (MRF), successful a missive to the Prime Minister connected Saturday, said regulator Ofcom’s implementation of the Online Safety Act has been a “disaster”.

Mr Russell said unless determination are changes to the legislation, “the streams of life-sucking contented seen by children volition soon go torrents: a integer disaster”.

Passed successful precocious 2023, the Online Safety Act is the UK’s archetypal large authorities to modulate societal media, hunt engine, messaging, gaming, dating, pornography and file-sharing platforms.

It gives Ofcom the powerfulness to good firms that neglect to conscionable these duties – perchance up to billions of pounds for the largest sites – and successful superior cases tin question clearance to artifact entree to a tract successful the UK.

In December, the regulator published the archetypal acceptable of online information rules, legally requiring platforms to measure the hazard of amerciable contented similar terrorism, hate, fraud, and kid maltreatment and instrumentality information measures by March oregon look enforcement action.

However, Mr Russell wrote that Ofcom’s choices “starkly highlighted intrinsic structural weaknesses with the legislative framework”, and that the regulator “has fundamentally failed to grasp the urgency and standard of its mission”.

Mr Russell said Meta brag Mark Zuckerberg and X, formerly Twitter, proprietor Elon Musk “are astatine the starring borderline of a wholesale recalibration” of the exertion industry.

Earlier this week, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced that it is scrapping its longstanding fact-checking programme successful favour of a assemblage notes system.

Mr Zuckerberg said this would absorption connected reducing mistakes, simplifying policies and restoring escaped look connected platforms, but would mean catching “less atrocious stuff”.

Mr Russell wrote that the determination was “a profound strategical displacement distant from cardinal information measures towards a laissez-faire, thing goes model”, creating a “bonfire of integer morals and online information features” successful which children “lose the most”.

He urged Sir Keir to betterment the Online Safety Act, focusing connected stronger regulations, a work of attraction for tech companies and putting victim-centred policies astatine the bosom of the framework.

The missive ended: “Too galore parents person mislaid anticipation that governments volition present the online information betterment they urgently need.

“Among bereaved families, determination is wide dismay that successive governments person chosen to dither and hold erstwhile the consequences of inaction has been further mislaid lives.

“As Prime Minister and arsenic a father, I implore you to act.

“You present person a profound opportunity, but besides a large responsibility, to enactment intelligibly and decisively and to amusement millions of parents crossed this state that meaningful alteration is connected the way.

“It is clip to decisively support children and young adults from the perils of our online world.”

The MRF was acceptable up by Mr Russell and his household successful representation of his daughter, who killed herself aged 14 successful November 2017.

A No 10 spokesperson said the Prime Minister thanked Mr Russell for the missive and acknowledged the “immense bravery” of him and different families campaigning for children’s online safety.

They added: “This Government is committed to ensuring online information for children.

“Social media platforms indispensable measurement up to their responsibilities and instrumentality robust enactment to support children from seeing harmful contented connected their sites.”

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We recognise the profound symptom caused by harmful contented online, and our deepest sympathies stay with Ian Russell and each those who person suffered unimaginable loss.

“That’s wherefore we’re doing everything successful our powerfulness to clasp platforms to relationship and make a safer beingness online, and victims’ voices volition proceed to beryllium astatine the bosom of our work.”