CHILDLINE: The responsibility for staying safe online shouldn’t be on children

Tech firms can build protection into their platforms which will prevent them being bombarded with harmful suicide and self-harm content on social media.

We’re here to help children and young people here and across the UK whenever they need us, at the end of a phone and through our Childline website.

The internet is an incredible tool, but in recent years it has become ever clearer that children are at more risk than ever, due in part to tech companies not designing their platforms with the safety of young people in mind.

Now, after five years of campaigning, the Online Safety Bill has passed, and Childline and the NSPCC are glad to see it.

I’ve spoken about the Bill on these pages before – it’s a ground-breaking piece of legislation that will help keep children safer online by giving tech companies a legal duty to protect them from sexual abuse and harmful material on social media sites, gaming apps and messaging services.

Around 34,000 online grooming crimes have been recorded by UK police since the Online Safety Bill was first discussed in 2018, including more than 2,200 here in the North East.

Since then, at least 3,696 people in the North East have signed the petition and helped play an important role in bringing about this life-changing piece of legislation.

The responsibility for staying safe online shouldn’t be on children, when tech firms can build protection into their platforms which will prevent them being bombarded with harmful suicide and self-harm content on social media.

It’s just this sort of material that was starkly highlighted by the inquest into the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell in September last year, which ruled that the self-harm and suicide content that Molly had been recommended on social media had contributed to her death.

This new legislation can help stop this happening to other children. It’s a momentous occasion for children which will finally result in the ground-breaking protections they should expect online.

Childline will always be here to help young people across the country, but we’re grateful to everyone who supported this legislation and led to a real-world change for children across the country.