The Online Safety Expert Group

Online safety legislative development – 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.

• OSEG 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 related to the online safety of children must be able to deliver real impact and reduce the risk of online harm to children. This means that it must be clear, enforceable and effective and NOT get in the way of existing child protections.

2. Crude bans don’t work and 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.
• Experiences gained in Australia have shown that age related bans just create a false sense of security that are not matched by reality.
• As Save the Children has noted, the focus of all online safety legislation should be on making online spaces safe, age-appropriate and ensuring children have the rights and opportunities they deserve rather than creating media friendly political soundbites.

3. OSEG is not alone, many organisations are raising the same concerns

• A wide range of child rights organisations, including Eurochild and the EU’s Better Internet for Kids programme, have warned that knee jerk legislation driven by political opportunism e.g social media bans, is ineffective and often counterproductive.

4. Enforcement first

• Across the EU and in domestically in many countries there is existing strong legislation already in place but is not being actively enforced. The challenge lies in effective, well resourced, rapid and consistent enforcement rather than chasing the “new and shiny”.
• Regulatory organisations must be fully resourced, supported and enabled to ensure rigid, rapid and rigorous application of legislation. Without this, legislation is just paper words or like a dog which is “all bark & no bite”.

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.
• The reality is that with or without regulation most children will access online content in some form regardless, so while many may not like it, they need to accept this reality and ensure that protections are in place.
• New legislation takes years to be in place and while that process happens – the current rules need active enforcement.
• 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.