Online Safety Act's Broad Restrictions Spark Criticism, Unintended Consequences
The Online Safety Act, designed to protect users from harmful net content, is facing criticism for its broad restrictions and lack of clarity. Online services are being pressured to over-restrict content to avoid fines, leading to unintended consequences.
The Act's current implementation encourages platforms to adopt overly broad restrictions. This has resulted in some innocuous online forums shutting down to avoid liability risks. Moreover, platforms lack clear guidance on what constitutes harmful net content, leading to restrictions on legal but potentially harmful content.
The Act requires online services to verify users' ages and restrict access to age-inappropriate material. However, this has led to legitimate support communities, such as those for sexual assault survivors or people trying to quit smoking, requiring government ID verification, compromising user anonymity.
Internationally, the UK is criticized for censoring foreign companies due to the Act. To address these issues, Parliament and Ofcom should provide more guidance on harmful net content, offer remediation periods before imposing fines, and require judicial review for content restrictions.
The Online Safety Act has introduced new criminal offenses for cyberflashing, intimate image abuse, and epilepsy trolling. However, its broad restrictions and lack of clarity are causing unintended harm. To ensure the Act achieves its goals without excessive net content restrictions, UK officials, including the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, should consider the suggested reforms.
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