Call for social media company fines for child protection failures
The children’s charity NSPCC have called for social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to be fined up to £17.5m or charges of corporate manslaughter over their failure to protect children from harmful content.
On Tuesday the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children suggested that social media companies that breach “duty of care” laws designed to keep children safe online should face a criminal investigation and unlimited fines.
The proposals request platforms to have measures to protect the children such as building safety features into the design of their sites, actively seek out and remove harmful content and report any breaches themselves.
The NSPCC’s head of online child safety Andy Burrows told the Daily Telegraph: “Unless we have regulation that is capable of protecting children in the way we know is necessary, then we will see further tragedies with children coming to harm.”
The new proposals come a week as Instagram announced it would ban graphic images of self-harm after the father of a 14 year-old teenager who took her own life in 2017 said the social platform had “helped” kill his daughter.
PARLIAMENT TO GRILL CLEGG
Elsewhere, after MPs from various parties told Parliament's joint committee on human rights about the increasing volume of abuse and harassment towards elected officials, particularly through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the committee's chairman has demanded answers from the companies.
Harriet Harman wrote to Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister and now head of global affairs for Facebook, asking him to give evidence on this subject, and have also written to Twitter requesting that they send a representative responsible for safety and content moderation in the UK.
The Committee is looking at the correct balance between the rights to free expression, to protest, to family life and to security of the person.
There is concern that the level of abuse, particularly stemming from social media, is inhibiting MPs’ freedom to represent their constituents and communicate with the public, and undermines the effective functioning of democracy.
Harman's letter to former Liberal Democrat leader Clegg concluded: "As someone who has themselves been an MP, you are uniquely well placed to discuss this. I am sure you will want to help, and so I am inviting you to give evidence to our inquiry. JCHR staff will contact your office shortly to discuss dates, but I hope we can arrange something for early March."