This package of amendments was drafted after a turbulent Second Reading in the House of Lords when ministers were pressed from all sides of the House on the child protection measures in the Bill.
The amendments will be debated in the House of Lords next month as part of the committee stage of the Online Safety Bill. The Children's Commissioner for England’s recent report highlighted the impact of these harms on children and called for stronger measures. Concern has also been raised amongst civil society groups, child protection charities, and parliamentarians that the measures to protect children in the Online Safety Bill are too vague, open to negotiation with tech companies and will take too long to implement – leaving children at risk of harm long after the Bill has passed.
A coalition of organisations lead by Barnardo’s and CEASE, and supported by a wide range of parliamentarians, have campaigned to ensure that pornography wherever it is found online (pornography websites and social media) is put behind an age gate, and that there is a duty on pornography companies to ensure that consent and age verification has been given by performers featured in pornographic content.
This group of amendments will set out on the face of the Bill the requirement that age checking in relation to pornographic content should be of the strongest kind i.e. age verification beyond a reasonable doubt. The amendments also set out the underlying principles of age checking regimes – that they must be effective and privacy preserving. The amendment includes a commencement clause to ensure that the provisions for age checking pornography take place in a timely fashion, specifically within 12 months of the Bill receiving Royal Assent.