Culture Secretary plots new measures to crack down on online harm

Social media giants have ‘put profits before children’ for years, the Culture Secretary said last night as she brought forward new measures to crack down on online harms.

Michelle Donelan said provisions in the Online Safety Bill will require firms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to prevent children accessing harmful material, or face huge fines – potentially worth billions.

For the first time, big tech firms will be forced to prove they are enforcing age limits, and adults will be given more control over the type of material pumped into their social media feeds, allowing them to block abusive material.

In addition, the legislation will outlaw vile recent online developments, including sharing intimate images without consent, creating pornographic ‘deepfakes’ – when a victim’s image is superimposed on real video – and sending material containing flashing images to people known to have epilepsy.

Michelle Donelan (pictured) said provisions in the Online Safety Bill will require firms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to prevent children accessing harmful material, or face huge fines – potentially worth billions

Ministers have, however, abandoned controversial plans to remove ‘legal but harmful’ material, following warnings it could damage free speech.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Miss Donelan said the measures were designed to force the big tech firms to finally take their responsibilities seriously.

She said the revised legislation would help prevent a repeat of the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, whose depression was fuelled by disturbing social media material promoting suicide and self-harm. ‘It is devastating that any family had to go through that,’ Miss Donelan said. ‘It continued to shine a spotlight on the fact that we need legislation to hold social media platforms to account and to prioritise the welfare and wellbeing particularly of children, which we know they haven’t been doing. They have been prioritising profits over children.

‘Unregulated social media has damaged our children for too long and it must end.’

She added: ‘If they don’t do that they’re going to face very serious ramifications, including fines of up to 10 per cent [of global turnover]. If you look at Meta based on their latest figures, that’s a [£10billion] fine.’

Asked whether the legislation would prevent children accessing the material that helped drive Molly to despair, she said: ‘This is the law. If a company breaks the law, there will be ramifications. If they’re complying with the law then absolutely that won’t happen.’

Ministers now face a race against time to push through the legislation, which will fall if it does not pass by the end of the parliamentary year, expected in May.

Miss Donelan said the revised legislation would help prevent a repeat of the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell (pictured), whose depression was fuelled by disturbing social media material promoting suicide and self-harm

One Whitehall source said the much-delayed legislation could now run out of time in the House of Lords. Another source warned that even if it passed next year, it would likely take at least another 18 months to come into full effect.

The Online Safety Bill has been paused for months in the wake of the Tory mutiny that forced Boris Johnson from office in the summer.

Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, welcomed the legislation. ‘We cannot allow any more children to suffer,’ she said. ‘The loss of children by suicide, after exposure to hideous self-harm and suicide content, are tragic reminders of the powerful consequences of harmful online material.’

The legislation will require the media regulator to consult her on the codes of conduct tech firms must follow.