Secretary of State writes to parents about Online Safety Bill

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Michelle Donelan has written an open letter to parents, carers and guardians, setting out the key measures in the government’s Online Safety Bill.

The letter explains how these new laws will help protect children as well as hold social media companies to account.

Donelan explains: "An incredibly important piece of legislation - the Online Safety Bill - is currently working its way through Parliament. At its heart is the protection of children, and so I wanted to set out exactly what we are doing to keep your loved ones safe online through this legislation.

"Under this bill, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and other social media companies will finally be held legally responsible for the content on their sites. They will be forced to protect their users, or face billion-pound fines and the potential blocking of their sites in the UK."

Donelan says that the Bill will protect children, by removing illegal content including terrorist content. It will also protect children from harmful content including posts that depict violence.

The Bill will also put legal duties on social media companies to enforce their own age limits and use age-checking measures to protect children from inappropriate content.

Donelan said: "Finally, given that there has been a bit of confusion on this point, I also wanted to make it clear that - as shown above - we are not just shielding younger users from illegal content. We are also protecting them from material that is not strictly illegal or banned by platforms, but that can cause serious trauma nevertheless.

"We have already seen too many innocent childhoods destroyed by this kind of content, and I am determined to put these vital protections for your children and loved ones into law as quickly as possible."

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