Online Safety Bill [HL]

Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde Excerpts

Friday 6th December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde (Lab)]

My Lords, I too very much welcome this Bill brought forward by the noble Baroness. I congratulate her on her assiduous attention and determination to keep on until such a Bill is passed. We have come a long way in a year. I believe the Prime Minister’s sincerity in wanting to deal with this area. His work and that of the honourable Member Claire Perry in another place has brought this issue forward. We have an opportunity to legislate, which we need to do in regard to safety for children online.

That said, it is far more difficult and complex to do than may at first appear. Many years ago, I was chairman of a small self-regulatory body, not a statutorily regulated body. It dealt with the premium rate telephone industry at a time of burgeoning so-called adult services, including voice services, and the way in which they were abused by children having access to them. For a long time, we tried to get a code of practice with the industry. We got a code of practice, which the good boys followed and the bad ones did not. That still is the situation today as regards those online services. In the end, we regulated to provide opt-in on telephone services, which dealt with the issue. Alongside opt-in we had sanctions, which were either to shut the company down or to apply fines. Those were the days when things were much easier than they are now. We now have international services and it is difficult for a Government to regulate outside their own national boundaries.

We need a mechanism which will deal with this issue in a practical way. This Bill goes some way, but not the whole way, to deal with that. Age verification is critical and I support that proposal entirely, as I do opt-in. I gather that a number of the service providers, including BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Sky, now have a code of practice where all new services will provide it. That is not the issue: all services need to be covered, which is what this Bill provides.

The Bill provides for Ofcom to be the overall regulator. Another group of services under the Mobile Broadband Group, including Telefonica—O2 in the UK—Three and Vodafone, have come together again for opt-in services but they are using the British Board of Film Classification. One might argue that that would be a better organisation to judge what is offensive on film, rather than a sound-provided service such as Ofcom. However, Ofcom has the statutory provision to do it. On balance, the Bill is right in going for Ofcom.

We are regulating for quite appalling services. I am no psychologist and I am not reaching any moral judgments here. Illegal services are illegal and are covered by law. This is about adult services that children have access to, which was never intended. We are in a society where not all parents are aware of how to shut off these services. It is the bad lads in the industry who the Government have a responsibility to bring to book. This Bill goes a long way to providing that. There will be changes in Committee, which I am sure the noble Baroness expects.

I have some concern about Clause 5, about which the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, spoke strongly in favour. I am not sure that it is the responsibility of the Department for Education to deal with this issue. Surely, the law has to be decided and the service providers should carry out the law. In Committee, we will debate giving an added responsibility to the Department for Education to make sure that all citizens are aware of this, irrespective of whether they use the services. I question Clause 5 but I do not question the importance and the need to make sure that anyone who has access to these services is aware of the protections which can be switched on. I am fully in support of the two principles of opt-in and age verification.

We need to discuss the other areas, including what we are talking about opting in to. We have talked about a range of services which may not be offensive and totally adult. Will the adult age be 18 for all services or will it apply just to sex services? In Committee, we will have a very interesting debate. I congratulate the noble Baroness on persisting with this Bill and for persuading whoever she persuaded to give it time this month. At one stage, it looked like we would not get to this Bill until 2014.