The government’s Online Safety Bill shouldn’t rely on emerging technology to deliver child protection without rigorous analysis of its flaws, according to research from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

The paper calls for a comprehensive approach to online safety that considers education, awareness, and privacy concerns as well as technology.

It also warns against compromising encryption and highlights the “importance of understanding the risks and implications of technology before enacting legislation”.

The report makes several recommendations, including:

• Policy makers need improved understanding of the technology issues posed by the OSB, to avoid unintended consequences as the bill moves into law.

• Legislation should address not just technical intervention, but also education, training of professionals, and public awareness programmes.

• Online safety policies should aim to provide young people, their parents and advisers with an understanding of risks and how to mitigate them, rather than assuming technology will prevent those risks from arising.

• Compromising end-to-end encryption (used by popular messaging apps) is not possible without introducing systemic risks and ‘bugging’ millions of users phones.

• Age-verification proposals are not yet proven to adequately prevent illegal access to material. Similarly, current detection of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) is highly unreliable.

• The UK’s international reputation on data security is likely to decline with legislation that undermines encryption – as illustrated by public statements from WhatsApp and Signal.

“The Online Safety Bill contains wide-ranging legislation that aims to regulate internet content to keep people safe,” said Rashik Parmar, chief executive, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. “For the bill to deliver on its intended purposes, its implementation and evaluation must be collaborative.

“Those responsible for creating the technology must ensure it meets the very highest standards of competence, inclusivity, ethics and accountability. We need to ensure technology is beneficial for the public and building confidence in it is a priority.”

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