The cost of online safety

Few people in Britain will have heard of the draft Online Safety Bill. Fewer still will oppose it. Protecting children against harm and exploitation online is an entirely rational goal in modern-day society. And when the Culture Secretary is boldly promising, as Nadine Dorries did at the weekend, to ‘bring order to the online world’ and ‘force social media companies to take responsibility for the toxic abuse that floods their platforms,’ it can be quite convincing: painting the web as a virtual Wild West that governments urgently need to regulate.

Doubtless, the internet is home to abhorrent abuse that isn’t acceptable in any circumstance. Beyond that, there are instances of unlawful behaviour and serious crime — and anyone who sees it should alert the police. Many do. Companies also have automated systems that pick up on abuses and file reports. But governments across the globe are increasingly worried about what they consider to be ‘harmful’ content, and measures are being pursued to counter them.