The Online Safety Expert Group

Key Principles

1. Protecting children online is a shared priority and we are all responsible

• Protecting children online is a shared responsibility and governments as legislators need to be supported in regularly reviewing legal frameworks to ensure that they are fit for purpose delivering genuinely safer online experiences for children.

• We share the concerns of many international organisations including Save the Children, ECPAT and others that children must be protected from child sexual abuse and exploitation online.
• Any legislative change must be judged by whether it will reduce the risk of online harm to children, be counterproductive or is just a political soundbite.

2. Bans risk creating new harms

• Bans shift the blame on to the user (i.e. the child) from the platform. Instead of simplistically introducing “new” bans, governments and regulators need to rigidly enforce the existing legislation so that online platforms are responsible for the safety of its users.
• Any social media ban will be detrimental to minors access to education, information, and opportunities to develop social and digital skills.
• History has shown than age related bans just create a false sense of security that is not matched by reality.
• As Save the Children has noted, the focus should be on making online spaces safe, age-appropriate and ensuring children have the rights and opportunities they deserve.

3. International organisations have raised similar concerns

• A wide range of child rights organisations, including Eurochild and the EU’s Better Internet for Kids programme, have warned that bans are ineffective, counterproductive and risk punishing children rather than addressing structural failures.

4. Enforcement, not prohibition, is the way forward

• Across the EU and in domestically in many countries there is existing strong legislation already in place. The challenge lies in effective, well resourced, rapid and consistent enforcement.
• Regulatory organisations need to be fully resourced, supported and enabled to ensure rigid, rapid and rigorous application of legislation. Without this, legislation is just paper words.
• Bans could potentially let platforms “off the hook” – as they can claim that there are no kids on their platform, meanwhile we know from experience that minors will find a way to circumvent any age gate restrictions.

5. Facing the future

• The Online Safety Expert Group exists to ensure that new regulatory approaches genuinely reduce harms and do not create unintended consequences.
• Most children will access social media in some form, so while many may not like that, they need to accept this reality
• The question is whether society confronts that reality with effective proven online safety measures — OR replaces those with bans that are easy to announce but will not be effective. At OSEG we say clearly – social media bans are not the answer!