Last week, we submitted our response to the Government's consultation on children's online safety. We made the case as clearly as we could.
WHAT WE SAID
Yes, age restrictions matter. But they are not enough. A ban that keeps a 15-year-old off Instagram does nothing to fix the architecture that harms the 17-year-old, the adult, the democratic debate.
The real problem is not that children are online. It is that they are online in spaces engineered to maximise attention, harvest data and convert emotional reaction into advertising revenue.
We could keep chipping away at this. Ban this feature. Restrict that platform. Fine them for this content. But the platforms will adapt, the harms will migrate, and the damage will continue.
There is a better way.
THE LEGAL FICTION AT THE ROOT OF IT ALL
Social media platforms have largely got away with it because the law treats them as neutral hosts – not publishers. That is a legal fiction. Courts cannot hold them liable for the harm they cause, because they are not legally classified as publishers. It is what allows them to shape public debate, damage children's mental health and corrode democratic life, while escaping the responsibility that every other publisher carries.
So, we have done something about it. We have drafted a Social Media Publisher Responsibility Bill. It does one simple thing: it declares in law that where platforms curate, recommend, amplify, target or profit from content, they are acting as publishers – and must carry a publisher's legal responsibility for the harm they cause.
One bold step. A transformation in accountability.
WHY THIS GOES BEYOND CHILDREN
The same systems that damage children's mental health also amplify disinformation, reward division, intimidate women and minorities out of public life, and distort democratic debate.
With AI now making harmful content cheaper, faster and harder to detect, a one-harm-at-a-time approach is no longer adequate.
This is not only a children's safety issue. It is a democracy issue. It is a society issue. And it is one that government has both the power and the duty to act on.
WE KNOW IT CAN BE DONE
They said making lying in politics a crime was impossible. We drafted the bill. It passed in Wales. Simple, powerful, common sense solutions to problems politicians said were too hard.
This is the same. We are not powerless. Government exists to regulate in the public interest – and we have given it the tool to do so.
Work like this – drafting legislation, making the case to Government, keeping compassion in the political conversation – takes time and resource. If you're able to spare even £5, it helps us keep going.
With warmest wishes,
Compassion in Politics Team