JERSEY not opting to “hook in” to the UK’s controversial Online Safety Act may have worked in the Island’s favour, according to a senior scrutineer – as ministers push ahead with the development of bespoke legislation to help protect children online.
Grouville Constable Mark Labey said that there were “a lot of inadequacies” within the UK Act, which places a range of new duties on social media companies and search services.
Mr Labey is vice-chair of the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel, which has been conducting a review into how the Island protects children from online harms. The Panel is set to publish its findings next month.
The Scrutiny review has included questions as to why the Government did not request a permissive extent clause to allow Jersey to opt in to the UK’s Online Safety Act, which passed into law in October 2023 and is being implemented by regulator Ofcom.
The Act requires platforms 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.
However, it has sparked significant controversy, with critics raising concerns around compliance burdens, freedom of expression and enforcement challenges.
This has included criticism from social media platform X, which described the legislation as a decision to “increase censorship in the name of ‘online safety'”.
A petition to repeal the Act had garnered nearly 500,000 signatures by yesterday afternoon, but the UK Government has said it has “no plans” to do so and that it is “working closely with Ofcom to implement the Act as quickly and effectively as possible to enable UK users to benefit from its protections”.
Mr Labey explained that the Panel had thought it would have been preferable for the Island to have used a permissive extent clause to “hook in” to the Online Safety Act, “so that Jersey, while it’s developing its own legislation, would have a bit of a safety net”.
But he acknowledged that not doing so “in hindsight, might be a good thing”.
“There is quite a bit of controversy that sits around it, there’s a lot of inadequacies within it, so in a way it has kind of worked in our favour,” he added.
Assistant Economic Development Minister Moz Scott said she – and Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel – were “quite aware” of the difficulties associated with the Online Safety Act and the potential problems if it was extended to Jersey.
She noted that the Government had been “proceeding on the basis of providing our own legislation in respect of online harms”.
Deputy Scott explained that, under the Jersey legislation being developed, Islanders would have the legal right to contact social media platforms to request that content be taken down where it was in breach of the law.
She added that, if the social media platform was not “responsive”, Jersey’s Information Commissioner would be able to “advocate on the Islander’s behalf”.
“What we are working on is legislation we believe is more appropriate for the size of or jurisdiction,” Deputy Scott continued, pointing out that it would also not be reliant on Ofcom.
