UK introduces exhaustive Online Safety Bill – BBC News
Tech bosses face jail if they hamper Ofcom investigations from next year | Technology | The Guardian
Basically it is a good bill. But do not think it will stop all the bad things as the government is promising us. It will help to slow things down – but stopping something completely on the internet – that’s a no. And if the police do not get behind the investigation needed to get a prosecution – and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) progress that to court, the law will have limited teeth.
UK Governments have tried the age verification thing before and it rapidly became a potential pot of gold for the same companies that were providing the adult content with a nightmare of implications if the PII the verification required was hacked – think Ashley Madison on steroids. (Some of the age verification sites had close links to existing pornography providers. The Guardian, October 2019.)
Age-verification for online pornography to begin in July – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (2019)
UK drops plans for online pornography age verification system | Internet | The Guardian (2019)
Ashley Madison data breach – Wikipedia
But let’s assume that this Government will put money behind the law and that the CPS and police will also allocate enough resources for it to be effective. Let’s hope our tax money is spent well and this law does not become a money pot for a select few and a burden to the rest of us.
I have a question. Will governments – any government no matter what the colour – have the courage to go after Big Tech – even in election years?
The one thing this morning I cannot find is the plan to restrict end to end encryption (E2EE) – I am going to read the bill later and find out what is happening about that. So watch out for that post.
Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security) – by-line and other articles
Online Safety Bill articles (Smart Thinking Solutions)
Online Safety Bill publications – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament
Draft Online Safety Bill (Joint Committee) – Summary – Committees – UK Parliament
Draft Online Safety Bill – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Smart Thinking Solutions supports this UK Government initiative:
Let’s stop abuse together – Stop Abuse Together (campaign.gov.uk)
