Online safety platform rules now tell big technology that no platform gets a free pass. That is reassuring news for parents. It is worrying news for the nation’s most ambitious loopholes.
The Government has announced action on illegal content, AI chatbots and online harms, alongside plans to consult parents and children. Britain has selected its familiar safety equipment. It includes a firm rule, a careful questionnaire and a deadline wearing sensible shoes.
The announcement says new powers will let ministers act on the findings of a forthcoming children’s digital wellbeing consultation. The aim is to move within months rather than wait years for new primary legislation whenever technology evolves. This is welcome urgency, although the urgency has been placed inside a consultation, where it can be observed safely from behind glass.
AI chatbot providers are also being brought closer to duties under the Online Safety Act, particularly over illegal content. Platforms cannot simply outrun responsibility. They can still make responsibility download three updates, accept new cookies and restart the device before breakfast.
Clare Firewall changes passwords for a living. She welcomed the announcement while reading the small print. “It is good to see someone watching the platforms,” she said. “I only hope the platforms are not asked to tick a box confirming they have understood the box.”
The proposed measures include examining age limits, infinite scrolling, children’s use of AI chatbots and the ways VPNs may undermine safety protections. Parents are being offered guidance on settings and conversations with children. The family sitting room can now become a regulatory workshop, provided everyone remembers the password and nobody asks who designed the menu.
There is a serious contradiction at the heart of the plan. Online services move at the speed of a bad idea, while public protection travels through consultations, amendments and an affirmative vote. The Government wants the law to keep up with technology. It has therefore given the law a running vest, handed it a clipboard and asked it to wait for permission to start.
Parents and young people need clear support, not a new qualification in platform administration. The Government’s message is simple enough. Protect children, follow the law and stop hiding the important setting behind “advanced preferences”.
Britain has finally found a way to make the internet safer: ask every app to promise improvement, then give the promise a form, a meeting and a cheerful little box confirming that the promise is still being processed.
