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UK Government shifts focus to tackle unsafe digital design
The UK Government will target harmful digital features in new legislation to keep children safe online, putting responsibility on companies to make the digital world safe by design.
On Sunday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced that Companies will be able to come off the list of services restricted for under-16s if they make their platforms safer for children. She also announced that the Government will develop new legislation targeting the digital features that put children at risk, using a “safety-by-design and safety by feature-led approach”.
5Rights welcomes these developments as a meaningful step towards holding companies responsible for children’s online safety. Rather than keeping children off unsafe services, the Government is now turning its attention to the companies that make those services unsafe for the sake of profit.
When the Government announced its new package of online safety measures this summer, we urged ministers to treat them as one step in a broader strategy towards keeping children safe online, not a long-term solution. Restricting access alone does not keep children safe. On the contrary, it allows companies to disclaim responsibility for children who find a way to use their services anyway.
The real test is whether regulation drives companies to make their products safer by default and by design, rather than pushing children out of the digital world.
5Rights work, from Disrupted Childhood to Pathways and more recent research into social media and EdTech products has shown how design features are built to maximise engagement while putting children at risk and proved that for children to enjoy a good digital childhood, the online world must be designed to be safe to begin with. Yesterday’s announcement signals a move in that direction. Nandy said the Government wants to reach a point where online spaces are “welcoming, safe, inclusive, and empowering” for everyone.
Head of UK Affairs Colette Collins-Walsh said:
“The Government has recognised that children’s safety online cannot depend on whether an individual platform happens to be on a list. Harmful features are built into products and services across the digital ecosystem, from social media and gaming, to EdTech and AI.
“This is an opportunity to put meaningful responsibility on the companies creating those risks, and to ensure that safety is built into digital products and services from the outset, moving us closer to a good childhood in the digital age.”
