My Lords, I support Amendment 217 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, and very much support the comments that he has made. I will speak to Amendments 218C, 218E, 218H and 218K in my name within this group. I also support the intent of the other amendments in this group tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Bethell.
I appreciate the process helpfully outlined by the noble Lord, Lord Allan. However, when looking at Ofcom’s implementation of existing provisions on video-sharing platforms, the overwhelming impression is
of a very drawn-out process, with Ofcom failing to hold providers to account. Despite being told by Ofcom that a simple tick-box declaration by the user confirming that they are over 18 is not sufficient age verification, some providers are still using only that system. Concerningly, Ofcom has not taken decisive action.
When children are at severe risk, it is not appropriate to wait. Why, for example, should we allow porn sites to continue to host 10 million child sexual abuse videos while Ofcom simply reports that it is continuing to partner with these platforms to get a road map of action together? As has been mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, Visa and Mastercard did not think it was appropriate to wait in such circumstances—they just acted.
Similarly, when systems are not in place to protect children from accessing pornography, we cannot just sit by and allow all the egregious associated harms to continue. Just as in Formula 1, when a red flag is raised and the cars must stop and go into the pits until the dangerous debris is cleared, sometimes it is too dangerous to allow platforms to operate until the problems are fixed. It seems to me that platforms would act very swiftly to put effective systems and processes in place if they could not operate in the interim.
The Bill already contains this emergency handbrake; the question is when it should be used. My answer is that it should be used when the evidence of severe harm presents itself, and not only when the regulator has a moment of self-doubt that its “road maps”, which it is normally so optimistic about, will eventually fix the problem. Ofcom should not be allowed to sit on the evidence hoping, with a wing and a prayer, that things will fix themselves in the end.
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Amendment 218C, 218E, 218H and 218K assert that Ofcom must—rather than may—apply to the court for an interim access restriction order should the conditions be met to do so. This is important, because it is only when we have a tough regulator that platforms will act.
When I moved previous amendments to the Bill, I mentioned my experience as chair, for six years, of the Better Regulation Executive. During that time, I learned that regulators that had a reputation for acting quickly and decisively, and for being tough, had a much more compliant base as a consequence. A compliant base in turn eases the regulatory burden, as regulators are not constantly having to bring forward provisional notices of contravention and expend resources trying to extract information from companies—and so Ofcom’s first option in the most serious situations would be to apply the brake immediately. This would have the potential to act as a powerful deterrent. If providers know that the regulator will pursue criminal action on those that breach service conditions, they are more likely to comply and make sure that there is no harmful material in the first place. If we settle for vague enforcement mechanisms, they will undoubtedly be open to abuse. Indeed, appropriate sanctions are impactful only if they are enforced decisively.
We have made immense progress in the development of this Bill in ensuring that children will be protected from pornographic and inappropriate content. We now have the responsibility to ensure that those who fail to comply with these measures face proportionate consequences. As regulator and sole enforcer of the Bill, Ofcom must be empowered to protect users online. In the spirit of willingness to respond positively, which the Minister has demonstrated already this afternoon, I hope that he will also do so with these amendments.