Maya Thomas

When Nadine Dorries first introduced the Online Safety Act (OSA) in 2021, she said it would be ‘watertight’. Now, she is calling it a ‘dog’s dinner’. The former cultural secretary said at the start of this week that her change of heart came after she saw the OSA ‘limit freedom of speech’ and ‘fail to fully protect children online’.  ‘Victims of the OSA’s bureaucratic burden include ‘Dads With Kids’, a forum geared at offering community support, tips and resources to single fathers, and ‘London Fixed Gear and Single Speed’, a forum for cycling enthusiasts.’ You can see her point if you look at the content the OSA has semi-censored through age-gating.

This week parliament will attempt to conclude legislation allowing the government to ban young people from social media. It’s taken weeks of ‘ping-pong’ to land on the specific form that these restrictions will take, and there has been no shortage of ideas. Tory peer Lord Nash’s proposals would introduce a blanket ban on all social media for under-16s, while the government is angling to implement restrictions on features and even introduce online curfews. We’ll soon find out what the final compromise will be. But from an online safety, privacy and civil liberties standpoint, the details hardly matter. The wave of a legislative wand will not magically banish children from social media.