Safer Internet Day: Samaritans highlights concerns with Online Safety Act

Coinciding with Safer Internet Day (11th February), Jacqui Morrissey, Assistant Director of Policy, Practice and Influencing at Samaritans, has outlined the charity’s concerns about the Online Safety Act in its current form.

These include the fact that dangerous suicide and self-harm content will remain online despite the introduction of the Act. Meanwhile, the regulator Ofcom, has advised the government to use site user numbers as the criteria for subjecting platforms to the strictest measures of the Act, ignoring advice from Samaritans, and other groups, as it leaves small but very high-risk platforms not subjected to the toughest rules.

Jacqui said: “We are extremely disappointed that Ofcom have chosen to ignore our advice and the advice of many organisations in making the criteria for the strictest measures focused on the number of users.

“We know the Secretary of State has chosen to accept Ofcom’s advice, which means dangerous suicide and self-harm content is going to continue to be accessible to anyone over the age of 18. Turning 18 doesn’t make you any less vulnerable to this content.

“We’re missing this really vital opportunity – Government and Ofcom have both said they recognise the concerns around small but very high-risk services, and they’ve said the decision on which services have to meet these highest measures needs to be based on evidence. Our concern is, why are they not listening to this evidence?

“We’ve heard all too often the role that online forums can play in someone taking their own life. We know coroners have clearly linked deaths to a particular site. So how much more evidence is needed to recognise this level of harm being caused on a site, and to ensure that it is subject to the strongest measures within the Act?

“It’s crucial that Government and Ofcom fully harness the power of the Online Safety Act to ensure people are protected from this dangerous content and to make sure that implementation is going to be effective as soon as possible.”

Speaking about the important role tech platforms can play, Jacqui continued: “We would hope that what the Online Safety Act does is create a minimum standard, but we would hope that platforms go beyond this and implement best practice.

“We know the Act isn’t going to cover lots of kinds of dangerous content, but platforms can choose to make their platforms as safe as possible for their users.

“The internet can be such a positive place. It can be a really important space for people who are feeling suicidal to access really helpful information, to be able to talk to people who might be experiencing similar things in a safe and supportive environment.

“Tech platforms can be at the forefront of creating these safe spaces to enable safe conversations to be happening.”