RetThe "Progress Statement" on the "Growing up in the online world" consultation is a depressing read.
Some highlights... 🧵
"For children in LGBTQ+ communities like me, [social media] helps them feel safe, especially when they can’t come out to anyone in real life. It also helps children with depression or anxiety to get the help that they need”
Young person, Children’s Consultation
Having the gall to include heartfelt and genuine responses like that and then say... "yeah but anyway, fuck the queer kids, we're banning it anyway" is... something.
Civil society and industry groups have rightly raised the risk that a ban might incentivise children to move to other, less safe parts of the internet. [...]
In the UK, there is already a strong foundation of protections in place to help keep children safe across thousands of online services under the Online Safety Act, including focusing on smaller services that pose risks. Ofcom has clear powers to hold companies to account and is supported by the government to use these. They have already launched over 100 investigations and issued over ÂŁ4 million in fines for breaching current online safety laws.
As far as I know, basically none of those fines have been paid and most of the sites are still accessible.