M

Member

Speaking in the House of Lords on 30 October 2025

Debate

Protection of Children Codes of Practice

Contribution

The third issue is the question of structural flaws—the safe harbour problem. Perhaps the most urgent concern relates to the fundamental architecture of these codes. Ofcom initially described them as transformational yet subsequently characterised them as merely a first iteration. Was this what we envisaged when we passed the Online Safety Act? Ofcom’s codes provide a safe harbour to platforms that effectively mean that the codes act as a ceiling, not a floor, for their safety standards. This provides platforms for exactly the incentive we would wish to discourage—the incentive to do precisely what is mandated and nothing more.

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