THE Scottish public overwhelmingly back robust new laws to protect children from abuse on social media and want bosses who run the companies behind websites to be held responsible for safety, new polling suggests.
An NSPCC/YouGov survey found that more than nine in 10 respondents (95%) in Scotland want social networks and messaging services to be designed safe for children.
The poll of more than 2000 adults across the UK, of which 179 respondents were from Scotland, shows huge support for putting a legal requirement on tech firms to detect and prevent child abuse while backing strong sanctions against directors whose companies fail.
Some 91% of respondents in Scotland wanted firms to have a legal responsibility to detect child abuse, such as grooming, taking place on their sites.
And almost four in five Scottish adults (79%) supported prosecuting senior managers of social media firms if their companies consistently fail to protect children from abuse online, while 83% of respondents want social media bosses fined for consistent failures.
NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said it shows a huge public consensus for robust duty of care regulation of social media.
He is urging UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to ensure his landmark Online Safety Bill convincingly tackles online child abuse and puts the onus on firms to prevent harm.
Dowden set out the UK Government’s vision for legislation in December.
The survey found that just 10% of Scottish adults think sites are regularly designed safely for children and 77% support a legal requirement for platforms to assess the risks of child abuse on their services, and take steps to address them.
The NSPCC’s Delivering a Duty of Care report, released earlier this week, assessed plans for UK legislation against its six tests for the UK Government to achieve bold and lasting protections for children online.
It found that the UK Government is failing on one-third of indicators (nine out of 27), with tougher measures needed to tackle sexual abuse and to give Ofcom the powers it needs to develop and enforce regulation fit for decades to come.
Wanless said: “Today’s polling shows the clear public consensus for stronger legislation that hardwires child protection into how tech firms design their platforms.
“Mr Dowden will be judged on whether he takes decisions in the public interest and acts firmly on the side of children with legislation ambitious enough to protect them from avoidable harm.
“For too long children have been an afterthought for Big Tech, but the Online Safety Bill can deliver a culture change by resetting industry standards and giving Ofcom the power to hold firms accountable for abuse failings.”
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