Sunak’s pledge over online ‘duty of care’ law by spring

RISHI SUNAK has pledged to introduce new “duty of care” laws to protect children from online harms before spring.

The assurance was provided in a text by Michelle Donelan, the Culture Secretary, to Ian Russell, the father of Molly, who took her life after viewing suicide and self-harm content on the internet.

Mr Russell revealed Ms Donelan had said she and the Prime Minister were “personally committed” to get the Bill completed in this parliamentary session, which is due to end next month.

It follows internal warnings by civil servants in the Culture Department that any further delay risks the collapse of the legislation as parliamentary rules bar it from being carried over.

The Bill was due to complete its Commons stages before the last summer recess but was pulled amid the chaos over Boris Johnson’s resignation. It was then time-tabled for earlier this month but was again dropped.

Mr Russell welcomed the pledge but said the “proof of the pudding” would be the measures within the Bill, which he said needed to include legal but harmful content. It is expected to strip out provisions clamping down on legal but harmful content for adults but strengthen protections for children.

Mr Russell said Molly had received “thousands and thousands” of posts driven by the tech firms’ algorithms that were “harmful” but not illegal. “If the regulator doesn’t have powers around that content, there will be more tragedies like Molly’s,” he said.

The NSPCC, Barnardo’s and 5Rights Foundation have asked Ms Donelan to bring the Bill back to the Commons this month and criticised the failure of ministers to commit to a specific date for its return to Parliament.