My Lords, I rise to support the amendments in the names of the intrepid noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, the noble Baroness, Lady Harding, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford. They fit hand in hand with the amendments that have just been debated in the previous group. Sadly, I was unable to take part in that debate because of a technical ruling, but I thank the Minister for his kind words and thank other noble Lords for what they have said. But my heart is broken, because they included age verification, for which I have campaigned for the past 12 years, and I wanted to thank the Government for finally accepting that children need to be protected from online harmful content, pornography being one example; it is the gateway to many other harms.
5.30 pm
As we have heard around the House, the Government need to make it clear that harm to children can arise from functionality and design of online services too—not only content. These amendments would show the tech industry that there is no place to hide when it comes to fulfilling its obligations to protect children, especially as AI is emerging. The consequences of this could open a whole new Pandora’s box of harms, which have already started to spread—with horror. These amendments are an excellent and golden opportunity to protect children from them.
Many of us from across the House have been fighting for years for this day, and it has been good to see that the Government have finally listened—I say, “Hallelujah”. But why they should stop the Bill being absolutely clear about harm fails me. If they are saying that it is covered in the Bill, what is the objection to them making it explicit? These amendments would send a loud, long message to the industry that it is responsible for the design of its products. Surely, the Government should be on the side of children who have suffered for far too long from being exposed to harmful content, not on the side of the multinational tech companies.
As the children’s charity Barnardo’s said—and I declare an interest as vice president—children do not have a voice. I feel that we have a responsibility to protect them, and we must expect the Government to take children into consideration and show that they have a holistic view about protecting them from harm. I hope that the Government will embrace these amendments by continuing to listen to common sense and will support them.