Charities demand an online advocate to protect children

YOUNG people need an independent advocate to act like a consumer watchdog to promote and protect their interests online, five leading children’s charities have urged the Government.

They are backing a cross-party amendment to the Online Safety Bill led by Baroness Newlove. The Tory peer is a former victims’ commissioner and deputy Lords speaker.

The proposed advocate would represent young people’s interests to Ofcom, the regulator, which has the power to force tech companies to make changes that might be causing harm to children.

Ofcom are to be given powers under the Bill to fine companies up to 10 per cent of their global turnover and jail bosses for major failures in their statutory duty of care to protect children from online harms.

The advocate, funded by a levy on the tech firms rather than the taxpayer, would act as an “early warning system” to alert Ofcom to dangerous trends or problems with social media platforms.

It would also provide a “counterbalance” to the tech giants,which have massive budgets to pay for lobbyists to protect their commercial interests.

The charities involved include the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, 5Rights and the Molly Rose Foundation. The fifth is the Breck Foundation, set up by Lorin LaFave and named after her 14-year-old son, who was groomed and murdered.

In an exclusive online article for The Sunday Telegraph, Lady Newlove said meeting Ms LaFave had helped convince her more needed to be done to tackle the profit-driven algorithms of tech firms that led to children being overwhelmed by harmful content.

“Companies have unleashed poorly designed products that have contributed in no small part to online child abuse spiralling to record levels,” said Lady Newlove.

Sir Peter Wanless, the NSPCC chief executive, said: “A statutory child safety advocate is crucial … to deliver on the Government’s goal to make the UK the safest place for a child to be online. It will give young users a seat at the table helping to hardwire child protection into the decision-making of the most influential tech company executives.”