'As a mother of a 17-year-old daughter I’m constantly vigilant at what she might be seeing online or who might be attempting to contact her insidiously under the guise of a friendly person of her own age'
, the 14-year-old from Harrow, north London, who was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017, should never be far from Ms Donelan’s mind. After her death, it emerged that this seemingly untroubled child had been viewing masses of content related to suicide, depression and anxiety online.
In a landmark ruling at an inquest in September, a coroner ruled that Molly died not from suicide, but from “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.This is where the difficulties with liberalism come in. Ministers have abandoned plans to remove ‘legal but harmful’ material on the grounds that it could obstruct free speech. Obviously there is no copyright on ideas, however dangerous they might be.
However, focusing on user-generated content – which could be anything from recipes to race hatred - sees the issue in only one dimension. Content only becomes ‘harmful’ when it’s shared with other people. As one clever commentator on digital matters says, this is “analogue thinking in a digital age”.There is one positive development.
As it stands, platforms typically only respond when online harassment is flagged to them through complaints, by which time the damage - through sharing intimate photographs for example, or waging an online vendetta campaign – is likely to have been done.What is also positive is that the legislation proposes to hit errant social media platforms in the pocket, by imposing hefty fines if they fail to comply with new regulations.
However, by trying to keep the tech firms onside and uphold the principle of ‘free speech’ the government is missing a massive opportunity to protect the most vulnerable individuals of all, our children.It would be a fitting legacy for the Conservatives, yet I see nothing absolutely convincing which will prevent another tragedy like the case of young Molly Russell happening again. Or stop impressionable children accessing damaging pornography.
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