80pc back plan to prosecute tech giants that risk child safety
PLANS to prosecute executives of social media companies for breaching child safety have been overwhelmingly backed by the public.
Eight in 10 British adults said that named directors of tech giants should be held accountable for any failures on their platforms that put children at risk, a proposal in the Government’s white paper on online harms published this month.
The Comres poll for NSPCC, the children’s charity, also found that more than three quarters of those surveyed believed that bosses should be prosecuted if they breached the proposed new statutory duty of care on firms to protect children from online harms.
Some 85 per cent also say social networks should face corporate prosecution for serious breaches, which would be modelled on the offence of corporate manslaughter. More than 2,000 people were interviewed for the poll.
‘There is overwhelming support for both corporate and individual criminal liability’
The Government is consulting on whether senior managers should be made liable for gross breaches of their company’s duty of care and whether this should be a criminal rather than a civil liability.
The NSPCC believes it should be criminal and a new corporate offence created so that tech firms can be prosecuted for gross breaches.
Peter Wanless, the NSPCC’S chief executive, said: “The Government’s pledge to bring in independent statutory regulation of social networks is hugely significant but, for effective enforcement, it is vital the regulator has teeth. These latest figures show there is overwhelming support for both corporate and individual criminal liability in cases where tech companies fail to protect children from harm.
“We urge the Government to decide on legislation that will make tech firms feel the full weight of the law if they fail in their duty of care to children.”
The white paper proposed a regulator to enforce the duty of care with powers to issue multimillion pound fines, serve enforcement notices and publish public failure notices.