"If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, this is a motorway."
BBC News: Online Safety Bill: Crackdown on harmful social media content agreed.
While the media are now mainly spinning this being about social media, it also containes another set of laws to force adult content sites to use age-verification on their users, which may well have an impact on our community.
Now it's passed the Lords, it's just a matter of getting Royal Assent (which is a formality) before it becomes law.
Peers have passed a controversial new law aimed at making social media firms more responsible for users' safety on their platforms.
The Online Safety Bill has taken years to agree and will force firms to remove illegal content and protect children from some legal but harmful material.
Children's charity the NSPCC said the law would mean a safer online world.
But critics argued it would allow a regulator, and tech firms to dictate what may or may not be said online.
The nearly 300-page bill will also introduce new rules such as requiring pornography sites to stop children viewing content by checking the ages of users.
While the act is often spoken about as a tool for reining in Big Tech, government figures have suggested more than 20,000 small businesses will also have to comply.
Platforms will also need to show they are committed to removing illegal content including:
- child sexual abuse - controlling or coercive behaviour - extreme sexual violence - illegal immigration and people smuggling - promoting or facilitating suicide - promoting self-harm - animal cruelty - selling illegal drugs or weapons - terrorism
New offences have also been included in the bill, including cyber-flashing and the sharing of "deepfake" pornography.
And the bill includes measures to make it easier for bereaved parents to obtain information about their children from tech firms.
Love you, too
