Tech firms must resolve to make the internet safe – we can’t afford to keep playing games with our children’s lives
THE New Year is a time for making resolutions – and I have a few that social media companies can put right at the top of their list.
In the last 20 years, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the rest of Silicon Valley have transformed our lives in all sorts of positive ways.
They have allowed us to stay in contact with loved ones, share photos and experiences with family and friends and follow the news online.
Unfortunately, though, those same companies have made certain promises to their users - and over those two decades, too often they have broken those promises.
They have failed to stamp out illegal content on their sites, like terrorism and child sexual abuse.
Prioritise profit
Worst of all, they have failed to protect children online.
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Tech firms know this is happening, and they have the tools to stop it. But they don’t, because it is part of their business model.
Every click brings them more money, and they would rather prioritise profit over people for as long as they can.
That all changes in 2023. It is a New Year, and a new chapter for social media — with a groundbreaking Online Safety Bill that will force Big Tech to clean up its act.
That legislation is currently working its way through Parliament, but it has a number of golden rules, and there is no reason why Silicon Valley cannot start following them right now.
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Resolution number 1 (and the most important one of all): Big Tech has to do more to protect our children.
I know that lots of young people and teens may have received iPads and smartphones for Christmas, and I want to prevent dangerous content filtering into their homes via those devices.
Parents do their best, but they cannot be there 24/7. That is why the government is stepping in to help.
For a start, tech companies will have to properly enforce their own age limits. Both TikTok and Snapchat are supposed to be for over-13s only.
Yet how many underage children do you know that regularly use those apps? That will not wash under the new regime.
Sites will now have to enforce their own age limits and use age-checking measures to protect children from inappropriate content.
They will also have to shield children not just from illegal content, but other harmful material such as pornography, bullying and posts that encourage eating disorders.
Resolution number 2: Stamp out illegal material.
Criminals currently hide in corners of social media, spreading dangerous terrorist content or grooming children for abhorrent sexual abuse.
That is absolutely unacceptable. If it is illegal offline, it is illegal online. There are no excuses.
And finally, resolution number 3: Put adult users in the driving seat of their own accounts.
I have made some changes to the Online Safety Bill to protect free speech and give adults far more power over what they see online. I do not want to stop people from saying things on Twitter or elsewhere that they can say on the streets.
But if they want to avoid certain types of content, that is their choice. It is time to put them in control. Those are the three central promises of this legislation, and we have just a few more hurdles to jump before it becomes law.
The Online Safety Bill will shortly be finishing its journey in the House of Commons and moving to the Lords - and I urge peers to pass it as soon as possible.
We cannot afford to delay this legislation and risk it timing out. We cannot play games with children’s lives.
Labour also has a part to play in helping us pass this bill, but their clumsy shopping list of reforms is heavy-handed and unsustainable.
It would leave masses of legal content cancelled and adults treated like children.
Face huge fines
Other countries are looking to us on this groundbreaking bill and Labour’s asks would leave us out of step with the rest of the world.
If they continue to play politics and snipe from the sidelines, they will not only not get what they want, but risk the bill’s passage altogether — leaving kids exposed to the same inappropriate and abusive content that we are trying to protect them from.
That is why every Labour MP needs to get behind us and back this bill.
Once this Bill has passed, Big Tech will have no option but to comply or face huge fines and the potential blocking of their sites.
But in the meantime, I urge them to start 2023 in the right spirit - and I will not hesitate to remind these huge firms of their responsibilities right up until the day this legislation gets on the statute books.
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I know that it can be hard to keep New Year’s resolutions, but after we pass this bill social media companies will not have a choice.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect our children. It does not get more important than that.