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Written by
UK Team
6th June, 2022

Coalition demands stronger protections for children in Online Safety Bill

Today in The Telegraph, 37 organisations from across the children’s sector come together with one shared message.

A group of four children standing close together, each focused on their smartphones. They appear to be pre-teens or early adolescents, dressed casually with backpacks, suggesting they might be on their way to or from school. The children are absorbed in their devices, seemingly engaged in a shared activity, though each one is holding and looking at their own phone.

In their letter to Secretary of State Nadine Dorries, they urge the government to adopt essential amendments to the Online Safety Bill, so that it lives up to its promise of making the UK the safest place in the world to go online and gives children the highest levels of protection. Without significant changes to the draft Bill, this will not happen.

The coalition have jointly developed an amendment package that, if adopted in full, will ensure the Online Safety Bill upholds the rights of children in the UK and keeps them safe online, while also setting a global benchmark for best practice.

This is a once in a generation opportunity to change the digital world so that it benefits the children of today and tomorrow. This coalition urges the government to make good on its promises and give children the protections they deserve.

The coalition includes: 5Rights Foundation; NSPCC; Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS); Breck Foundation; National Children’s Bureau; British Youth Council; SWGfL; Ditch the Label; Catch22; Barnardo’s ; My Life My Say; Children England; The Diana Award; Include Youth; Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE); Internet Watch Foundation; Carnegie UK; Clean Up the Internet; Save the Children ; The Children’s Media Foundation; The Children’s Society; Children’s Law Centre; SumOfUs; SchoolBeat; Parenting NI; Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (ECPAT UK); Molly Rose Foundation; The Student View; Fair Vote UK; The Signals Network; Childnet; Equality Now; The Lucy Faithfull Foundation; Hacked Off; Coventry Youth Activists; End Violence Against Women; Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford.