January 7, 2024
As the UK gears up for its general election, one of the pressing issues on Social Media Resilience's mind is the safety of young people online. Ensuring that children and teenagers are protected from online harms is more crucial than ever. What is each party saying when it comes to legislation to protect young people?
Before delving into the parties' proposals, it's important to understand the current state of online safety legislation in the UK. The Online Safety Act became law in October 2023, marking a significant milestone in online safety regulation. Currently, the Act is in its implementation phase, with Ofcom, the designated regulator, playing a crucial role in rolling out the new rules. In November 2023, Ofcom published a roadmap outlining a phased approach to implementation alongside its first set of draft codes of practices and guidance for consultation focusing on illegal harms. This is expected to be laid before Parliament in late 2024 with an aim to have all codes in force by early 2026 (1).
Ofcom was granted substantial powers under the Act to ensure compliance. These include the ability to request information from service providers, conduct investigations, and impose significant fines of up to £18 million or 10% of a company's global annual revenue, whichever is greater. Additionally, Ofcom has the authority to apply to courts for service restriction orders in cases of serious failures.
While some provisions of the Act are already in force, including Ofcom's information gathering powers, the core safety duties for online service providers will only start applying after the relevant codes of practice come into force (2). The implementation of the Online Safety Act is a complex process that will take several years to fully realise.
With this in mind, what are the parties offering?
The Conservative Party has made several commitments to improve online safety for young people. Central to their plan is the implementation of the Online Safety Act. Additionally, the Conservatives plan to put statutory guidance in place to ban mobile phones during the school day, providing funding to schools to help enforce this policy. They also intend to consult on introducing further parental controls over social media access, building on the existing responsibilities set out for social media companies by the Online Safety Act (3). Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has emphasised the need for stronger measures to protect children online. In a speech at London Tech Week in 2023 (4), Sunak stated, "We have a responsibility to ensure that the digital world is a safe place for our children. That's why we're considering additional steps, including potential restrictions on smartphone use for under-16s and enhanced parental controls". The Education Select Committee has also recommended considering a ban on smartphones for under-16s, highlighting the need for radical steps to protect children from the potential dangers of the online world (5).
Labour's manifesto builds on the Online Safety Act, promising to bring forward its provisions as quickly as possible and explore additional measures to keep everyone safe online (6). A significant part of their strategy involves the establishment of Youth Futures Hubs, which will provide youth workers, mental health support workers, and careers advisers to support young people's mental health and prevent them from being drawn into crime. Labour also plans to place specialist mental health professionals in every school and create mental health drop-in hubs in communities (7).
Specific measures proposed by Labour include empowering coroners to access information held by technology companies following the death of a child, criminalising the creation of sexually explicit deep fakes, and regulating vaping products to prevent marketing to young people. They also aim to strengthen rules to prevent the online sale of dangerous items like knives and to update regulations to counter online extremism (8,9,10, 11).
Labour aims to restore hope and security for families by ensuring that politics is driven by a sense of service to the country and that hard work is respected and rewarded. This approach includes a commitment to creating a safer online environment for young people through robust regulation and proactive measures (6).
The Liberal Democrats propose setting up an independent advocacy body for children's online safety. They also plan to introduce regulations to halt the dangerous use of vapes by children and ban the sale of single-use vapes (10,12). To address mental health, the Liberal Democrats want to establish mental health hubs for young people in every community and place a dedicated mental health professional in every primary and secondary school (10). They aim to make youth diversion a statutory duty and invest in engaging youth services to prevent young people from falling prey to gangs and violence. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has been vocal about the need for a comprehensive approach to online safety. In a speech to the party conference, he said, "We can't just rely on tech companies to police themselves. We need an independent watchdog with real teeth to hold these companies accountable and protect our children". Davey has also called for more investment in digital literacy programs, stating, "We need to empower our young people with the skills to navigate the online world safely. This means investing in comprehensive digital literacy programs in schools and communities" (13).
Labour is currently favoured to win the upcoming election, but their manifesto has faced criticism for lacking detailed commitments. This could be a strategic move to avoid overpromising and underdelivering, a tactic that may resonate with voters wary of grand but unachievable promises.
The Online Safety Act is a crucial step in addressing online harms. However, some parents who have lost children to suicide are calling for even stronger action. Ian Russell, father of Molly Russell who took her own life after viewing harmful content online, and Esther Ghey, mother of Brianna Ghey who was murdered after being exposed to harmful online material, are part of a group of bereaved parents urging for more robust measures. They are calling for a commitment to strengthen the Online Safety Act in the first half of the next Parliament and for mental health and suicide prevention to be added to the school curriculum, and more immediate action to safeguard children online (15).
Former Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield has echoed these calls for stronger action from the government (16). Longfield has consistently highlighted the need for a comprehensive approach to children's online safety and mental health. In her reports, she emphasised that the internet was not designed with children in mind and that children are frequently exposed to harmful content online (17,18,19). Longfield has called for the creation of a digital ombudsman to uphold children's rights and for digital citizenship to be part of the school curriculum from an early age (16).
At Social Media Resilience, our main concern is that schools and parents are overburdened and confused about how to implement measures in schools and at home to protect young people. With the Department of Education's guidance on smartphone bans in schools (20), the implementation of measures has varied across schools, with pushback from parents who feel that smartphones are essential to stay in touch with their children throughout the day, while other parents feel it is necessary. Statutory guidance would make this clear, providing schools with the authority to implement phone bans with a clear rationale to educate parents on phone use.
We suspect bans will come into place in the coming years, with tighter restrictions on phone use and social media access for under-16-year-olds. However, school time is the least of our worries. Daily, parents are tackling challenging conversations negotiating with children who want to play online games, stay up late, and access the internet for fear of being left behind in their social group. Cyberbullying doesn't happen in school; more often than not it happens behind closed doors.
Parents and young people need more support. We believe cross-community action is required to provide strong education, frameworks, and guidance on these challenging issues, with local initiatives to implement frameworks across schools and collaboration with parents and front line mental health services. Support is required at key developmental ages to build digital resilience skills for lifelong learning and safety in a digital world, and will continue to be a key focus when bans are implemented.
Our concern is that in years to come legislation may provide clearer guidance, but may be slow to provide real support and funding for these issues, leaving parents and schools to deal with these growing challenges for years to come. Initiatives need to be implemented at community level with clearer guidance on the current evidence for schools, parents and young people. Collaboration between schools and communities is essential, and agreement on the approach to tackle the issues area by area is needed to avoid gaps in education, skills development and support.
With this in mind, we are championing our #WeSpeakUp network, designed to do just this. Our aim is to build a community of forums to give young people, parents and teachers a voice. We aim for collaboration across communities and schools to agree approaches and frameworks. If you would like to find out more about this network, please contact us at
abi@socialmediaresilience.org.uk.