Coroner touts separate children’s sites to boost online safety
THE coroner in the Molly Russell inquest has recommended that the UK Government’s proposed internet safety laws be strengthened in order to better protect children from online harm.
Senior coroner Andrew Walker’s report said the Government should consider “reviewing the provision of internet platforms to children”, including the possibility of “separate platforms for adults and children”.
This would represent a substantial strengthening of the existing proposals set out in the Online Safety Bill, which are expected to be reintroduced to parliament shortly.
Currently, the bill would require the biggest social media platforms to remove illegal content as well as clearly set out how they would protect children who use their platforms from encountering other harmful material, with the bill suggesting age verification tools as one way of filtering appropriate content.
While this would require firms to create more robust barriers to protect children who visit their sites, it does not, in its current form, ask platforms to create separate spaces for them.
The coroner’s recommendation does not suggest how such a system could work in practice across all major social media platforms, and the Government is not required to follow the report’s proposals, but some firms, including Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, have already begun exploring this approach.
A child’s version of its messaging platform, Messenger Kids, is already available, which is controlled and managed by a parent, including the ability to see messages and also contains no advertising.
In addition, the company has explored creating a version of Instagram aimed at those aged under 13 – the minimum age to join the full platform – which would similarly see online interaction monitored by a parent and not contain advertising.
Were the Government to follow Mr Walker’s report, it could amend the Online Safety Bill to require platforms that know they are accessed by children to offer a specialised, separate version to those under a certain age.
But questions remain about reproducing these types of systems at scale and where and when age restrictions and limits could or should be imposed.