JERSEY has an opportunity to “go further” to keep children safe online by developing its own legislation – addressing areas where UK safeguards fall short – according to a leading child protection charity.
In a letter to the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel, which is conducting a review into how the Island protects children from online harms, NSPCC Jersey said that the UK’s Online Safety Act “does not go as far as we would have liked” in some respects.
The letter comes less than a month after Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel told the Panel that adopting the UK legislation would be “unworkable” and leave the Island relying on outside regulators.
He said that: “The best thing Jersey can do is create its own laws that are the right scale to Jersey and use its own powers to protect children from harm online.”
Education Minister Rob Ward also recently told States Members he thought Jersey needed a “bespoke” social media policy, amid heightened debate over the use of mobile phones in schools.
The UK’s Online Safety Act passed into law in October 2023 and is being implemented by regulator Ofcom.
It places a range of new duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for users’ safety on their platforms.
Under the Act, platforms are required to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content – including pornography as well as content relating to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and serious violence.
But in its letter to scrutiny, NSPCC Jersey noted that “there are some areas where the Act does not go as far as we would have liked, or where new challenges have emerged”.
It suggested that these were areas that the Island “could consider” should it design its own legislation.
Shortfalls in the UK legislation, it argued, included “new and emerging risks to children online” such as generative artificial intelligence, as well as a lack of “formal, independent mechanisms to ensure that children are consistently able to inform and shape decision-making”.
It also said that: “We think the Act, and associated codes from Ofcom, should go further to keep children safe on private messaging platforms,” citing concerns raised by the NSPCC and other charities in the UK over an “unacceptable loophole” in which user-to-user services are only required to remove illegal content where it is “technically feasible”.
In an update yesterday, the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel said it was reaching “the final stages” of the evidence-gathering process within the review.
Chair of the Panel, Deputy Catherine Curtis, said: “We have received a lot of useful and thought-provoking submissions from Islanders as part of this review and there is clearly a lot of public interest and concern in this topic.”
She added that two key themes had been “consistently” raised by parents, teachers and ministers – the use of mobile phones in schools and the “growing prevalence” of virtual private networks.
Deputy Curtis continued: “We have been pleased to hear that new legislation to strengthen our online safety laws are being drafted and that there appears to be a more co-ordinated ministerial approach to this issue.
“However, we remain unconvinced that attempting to separate ourselves from the UK and its Online Safety Bill is the right course of action.”
Deputy Curtis stressed that public submissions to the review would help inform the Panel’s subsequent report and recommendations.
“Keeping our children safe is becoming an increasingly difficult task in the ever-evolving online world and we would encourage anyone interested in this area to write to the Panel and help inform our review.”
The deadline for making submissions to the Panel is Friday 13 June.
Two further public hearings are due to take place next month with the Information Commissioner and Children’s Commissioner.
