When the Online Safety Bill is signed into law in the UK, Ian Russell has urged the Office of Communications (Ofcom) to be "bold and act fast." He is an online safety campaigner and the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who committed herself after being exposed to suicide material through social media.
Legalization of Online Safety Measures
The bill has been in the works for years and would place new legal obligations on major tech firms and service providers. Russell has stated his confidence that this would make the online space safer.
In his opinion, swift action by the regulator was necessary to guarantee that the bill, anticipated to be passed by Parliament shortly, was carried out as intended.
In an interview with BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he stated, "It's not perfect, but it's an important step, and it's a step that has been needed for years to counter this new technology, to counter these changes that are happening so fast that society doesn't quite know what to do with."
Schoolgirl Molly Russell from Harrow, north-west London, died in November 2017 from "an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content," according to the findings of an inquest released in September last year.
Russell urged Ofcom to act immediately after the bill's passage, saying that many more families are affected by this issue, some similar to Molly's and others very different. He added the bill would be ineffective if it does not protect the children from the dangers they have been exposed to online.
According to ITV News, Russell expressed confidence that the bill will be successful since it was created to be future-proof by not being technology-specific.
A key component of the new legislation would be the potential penalties, which might include prison time for CEOs or any individuals in control of tech corporations.
He explained why he was so passionate about the topic by saying, "I hope Molly would be proud, and we hope that this step, the new Online Safety Bill, will mean there are fewer of those families with stories like Molly's in the future."
Will It Compromise Users' Privacy?
Many in the tech sector were concerned that the government may attempt to access private communications sent through end-to-end encrypted services due to a clause in the Online Safety Bill.
WhatsApp and other messaging providers have said that they may leave the UK rather than jeopardize users' right to communicate privately.
Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said last week that the delayed legislation had not weakened anti-encryption safeguards. She said the bill, which included a safety net that may never be required, remained unchanged.
Notably, data and communications are protected by end-to-end encryption, a security method that scrambles them so that only the sender and receiver can decipher the data.
