New Government online safety rules soften mandatory ISP filter stance

New rules announced by the government which aim to prevent the dangers faced by British consumers when online will also mandate social media companies and service providers to pay a levy to “help raise awareness”.

The Internet Safety Strategy green paper, revealed by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) earlier this week, sets out how the government intends to tackle dangers including cyber-bullying, trolling and under-age access to pornography.

It also calls for social media companies and other communications service providers to pay a levy to help both curb dangerous content and raise awareness of online issues among consumers. Rather than an industry tax, however, the government has said it will “secure contributions on a voluntary basis” for the time being.

The government’s own statistics suggest that 20 per cent of 12-15 year olds have seen material online they “found worrying or nasty in some way” over the last year, with 64 per cent of 13-17 year olds seeing something “offensive” in the same time.

More interesting is a changed stance towards earlier demands from regulators for broadband ISPs to filter online content at a network level – also known as “parental controls” – particularly for adult content.

Commenters have previously highlighted that this viewpoint, first outlined in the DCMS’s Digital Charter, conflicts with the EU’s Net Neutrality safeguards.

In the new green paper, however, the language used suggests that UK ISPs will be called upon to self-regulate how they set up parental control filters. The papers’ authors add that “ISPs are best placed to know what their customers want” and that a mandatory regulatory system posed a risked to online freedom.

Karen Bradley, DCMS Secretary of State, pointed out that the internet is a potentially harmful place for children and the vulnerable.

She added: “We need an approach to the Internet that protects everyone without restricting growth and innovation in the digital economy.

“Our ideas are ambitious – and rightly so. Collaboratively, government, industry, parents and communities can keep citizens safe online, but only by working together.”