Molly Russell’s father warns PM that UK ‘going backwards’ on online safety
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Ian Russell, whose daughter died viewing harmful content, says Online Safety Act a ‘disaster’. The father of a 14-year-old girl who died after viewing harmful content on social media has told Keir Starmer that the UK is “going backwards” on online safety.
Ian Russell, chair of the Molly Rose Foundation set up in memory of Molly, who took her own life in 2017, said the regulator Ofcom’s implementation of the Online Safety Act has been a “disaster” in a letter to the prime minister on Saturday. Russell said, unless there are changes to the legislation, “the streams of life-sucking content seen by children will soon become torrents: a digital disaster”.
Passed in late 2023, the Online Safety Act is the UK’s first major legislation to regulate social media, search engine, messaging, gaming, dating, pornography and filesharing platforms. It gives Ofcom the power to fine firms that fail to meet these duties – potentially up to billions of pounds for the largest sites – and in serious cases can seek clearance to block access to a site in the UK.
Last month, the regulator published the first set of online safety rules, legally requiring platforms to assess the risk of illegal content such as terrorism, hate, fraud, and child abuse, and implement safety measures by March or face enforcement action.
