The Online Safety Bill was scheduled to return to parliament today after being postponed from July – for each of these days, the NSPCC predicts that more than one hundred instances of grooming and other similar offenses will have been reported.
New data suggests that more than 13,000 online child sex offenses occurred while the government’s flagship internet safety legislation was in limbo during the summer.
The Online Safety Bill was supposed to return to parliament today after being delayed until July, but the NSPCC reports that more than 100 cases of grooming and other similar offenses are likely to be reported to the police every day in the interim.
As a result of the latest Tory leadership crisis, which resulted in Rishi Sunak’s installation as prime minister last week, the bill’s return to the House of Representatives has been further delayed.
Since then, the government has declined to commit to a new schedule.
The NSPCC stated that the “vital” legislation should be given “priority.”
Sir Peter Wanless, the chief executive, stated, “There is an enormous public consensus for the critical law to be brought back as a priority, with strengthened protections for children so that they are systemically and thoroughly secure from injury and abuse for decades to come.”
A representative for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport told, “Protecting children and eradicating illegal behavior online is a high priority for the government, and we will reintroduce the Online Safety Bill to parliament as soon as possible.”
What is Online Safety Legislation?
The legislation was central to the Conservative Party’s 2019 election platform, with former culture secretary Nadine Dorries promising to crack down on tech companies.
Last year, while addressing the legislature, she warned social media executives of severe criminal prosecution if they did not “delete your damaging algorithms immediately.”
Under the first recommendations, tech businesses would have two years following the bill’s approval to prepare for the changes.
Opposition to the plan centered on its imprecise definition of “online harm,” with some claiming it would grant the DCMS too much authority to regulate internet debate.
This topic has been brought to the forefront by Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, as he appears eager to ease content moderation regulations despite mounting political pressure to do the opposite.
The victim’s heartfelt appeal to the PM
Almost 50,000 individuals have signed a petition urging Mr. Sunak to pass the Online Safety Bill.
The poster features a letter from an 11-year-old victim who was recruited and mistreated online.
“Unregulated online spaces allowed my attacker to use several platforms to pursue, abuse, and manipulate me without ever leaving his house,” they said.
“It took me a long time to realize that what happened to me was not my fault because online grooming is by definition aggressive and misleading.
“Sadly, too many youngsters continue to experience the same difficulties I did.
They are still vulnerable to online grooming and sexual abuse.
However, you can alter this.
“You can prevent this from occurring to other youths.”
It comes as the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who committed suicide after watching self-harm and suicide-related information on social media, cautioned that further delays to the law will imperil young people.
Last month, he told The Guardian, “If we wait around and pursue perfection, we jeopardize young people who are exposed to bad content.”
Michelle Donelan, the current secretary of culture, has emphasized that the bill is her top priority.
The NSPCC referenced police data from the Home Office for its research, which was based on the overall number of cases of online child abuse documented in England and Wales in 2021/22.
