Online Safety Bill finally becomes law

The Online Safety Bill (OSB) today passed its final stage in the House of Lords and will now become law after years of debate and delay.

Under the Bill, social media firms will be forced to remove illegal content and do more to protect users from online harms.

CARE especially welcomes the provisions in the Bill which will see age verification implemented on all online pornography; both commercial porn sites like PornHub and social media platforms as well.

Illegal content includes, but is not limited to, selling drugs and weapons, inciting or planning terrorism, sexual exploitation, hate speech and revenge porn.

Social media bosses will face large fines if they fail to comply. Communications Ofcom is the new regulator, responsible for enforcing the law.

A controversial part of the Bill would have criminalised content deemed 'legal but harmful' but this section was removed by the government last year.

Age verification on online porn was originally part of the Digital Economy Act. But it was abandoned in October 2019.

CARE has supported MPs and Peers in persuading the government to implement a tough, comprehensive age checks scheme which is expected to be in place in the next 18 months.