Tories criticised as online harms bill “kicked further down the road”

Labour has accused the Conservatives of having “kicked further down the road” plans to bring forward an online harms bill as the minister told MPs the legislation would not be introduced until the next parliamentary session.

Highlighting that the ‘white paper’ for the online harms bill was published two years ago next month, Jo Stevens asked the minister in a parliamentary question today to accept that the delay has “left women and girls at risk for too long”.

“We have seen an outpouring of grief over the death of Sarah Everard,” she told the Commons this morning. “And the Secretary of State will know that words online often translate into actions offline.”

Stevens reminded the Secretary of State that he had declared to MPs, from the despatch box in June last year, that the online harms bill would be introduced before the end of the current parliamentary session.

Dowden claimed that the legislation remains a “real priority” for the government but told the Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary that a draft will be not brought forward until the start of the next session in May.

Commenting after the session this morning, Stevens said: “Keeping children and vulnerable people safe online should be one of the most important issues for this government. Instead, we keep seeing this law kicked further down the road.

“Last year, the Tories promised to have the law ready by the end of the year and today they have made exactly the same promise about 2021. How can we trust that we won’t be in exactly the same position next year?” she added.

“This law is a once-in-a-generation chance to keep us all safe online we need it to come before parliament as soon as possible so we can ensure it does all it needs to.”

Stevens, in December last year, described the legislation as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to tackle the dangerous elements of the internet” and said it must not be wasted by the Conservative government.

Labour proposed in November the introduction of penalties to prevent the spread of anti-vax disinformation and called on ministers to work on a cross-party basis on its promised online harms bill to “get that legislation on the statute book”.

The online harms bill was announced in 2019 following the death of Molly Russell but only completed the white paper stage in December. The chair of the Lords democracy digital committee branded the delay “unacceptable”.

The Office for National Statistics reported last year that one in five British children were bullied online, and between April and October the NSPCC held more than 1,000 counselling sessions with young people about online bullying.