Six years after the idea first materialised, the Online Safety Act has finally passed into law. It’s long overdue – since its invention, the internet has had little-to-no regulation. And in the years since, it has grown increasingly all-encompassing, embedding itself in every facet of people’s lives.
Recent global events show the impact of a completely unlegislated online world. Social media has been awash with falsified information of the Israel-Hamas conflict, making it increasingly difficult to decipher which videos and photos are real and which fake. Meanwhile, online grooming and child sexual abuse cases are up a staggering 80 per cent in the past four years, and four in ten UK children aged eight to 17 have experienced bullying, either offline or online.
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