I have sent my MP the below email regarding the Online Safety Act. I’m hoping I will get a constructive response, but I’m expecting to just get called a predator according to the party line. I will post the response when it arrives…

I am writing to you as a constituent to express my concern about the Online Safety Act. I previously wrote to my MP when it was still the Online Safety Bill and received the Conservative party line in response, addressing none of my concerns. I hope that you are more willing to engage with constituents.

As a parent of 2 children, I believe that the Online Safety Act is not fit for purpose. It does not achieve it’s stated aims of protecting children while at the same time pushing Brits into a riskier online landscape and stifling online innovation in the UK. I would urge you to support efforts to repeal the act.

With the Online Safety Act coming into force, many large, non-pornographic websites have started have to have some form of age verification process. Websites such as X (Twitter), Reddit and Bluesky all now require that a user verifies their age before allowing access to parts of their sites. This usually requires that the user submits their personal information to a company based outside of the UK and consents to that company sharing their information with dozens of partner companies.

These 3rd party verification companies claim that and PII is deleted immediately after verification, however the recent hack of the Tea app[1] shows that these claims should not be trusted. Tech companies will retain information for as long as possible as that information is valuable to them and storage is cheap.

By forcing UK Residents to submit their PII to these companies to use non-pornographic websites, we are setting up a very tempting target for hackers to go after. Even if a company does delete the PII immediately, a long running hack could potentially harvest the personal details of thousands of UK residents in real time. While this is currently only hypothetical, in today’s cybersecurity landscape it is a very valid concern.

In addition to the concerns around PII, the Act is also resulting in removal of resources for under 18s. Examples include the subreddits /r/periods, /r/stop drinking and /r/stopsmoking[4]. None of these can be considered inappropriate, but they are all blocked.

The requirements imposed by the Act will also act to stifle the UK tech sector. With the new work, costs and liabilities imposed by the act, it is now functionally impossible to run a small forum for UK residents. Existing forums such as the Renault EV club have already shut down, citing the Act as the cause[2]. A month ago, I would have been able to create a small forum for a club I am a member of. Today, creating that forum sets me and the club up for up to £18M in liabilities if I am found to not be complying with the Act. The result is a no-brainer, I don’t set up that forum. Instead the club will likely use Facebook or Discord, handing our data to US tech giants.

This example of a small club also extends to small start up companies. It is no longer feasible to create a small hobby project in the UK that falls under the umbrella of regulated services. Previously the only costs required would be hosting and a domain name - which could be paid upfront and shared across multiple projects for under £100 per year. Now in addition, you are likely needing to pay an age verification provider for every verification. As a hobby project on a shoestring budget, this is not practical and will be well outside of the realm of affordable. This means that only the large, established players like Facebook or X are able to operate. Given Facebook started as a single student’s hobby project in their dorm room, this is a massive loss for the UK.

Another unintended (but not unforeseen) consequence of the Act is the massive increase in VPN use by the general public. By using a VPN to appear outside of the UK, people are able to avoid the age verification requirements on all sites that implement it. The official Ofcom response to the rise in VPN use appears to be “parents should monitor their children’s internet usage”. This single statement appears to undermine the entire rationale for the act. If parents already have the tools to protect their children online (they do), then the act is not required in its current form.

In addition to VPNs allowing UK residents to bypass the age verification aspects of the Act, they also have another effect. The use of VPNs in this way effectively removes the ability of UK courts to apply restrictions to content available in the UK. As an example, there has been a long standing court order blocking The Pirate Bay[3] in the UK. By using a VPN to bypass age verification, this site is now unblocked. This will apply to all blocked content - including where courts have issued injunctions against naming individuals in the UK, but they have been named overseas.

Finally, I would like to express my distaste at how the current Government has handled the current calls opposing this Act. Most people do not follow Parliamentary proceedings and have only just become aware of the Online Safety Act now it’s most visible components have become active. To dismiss their concerns as being “on the side of predators” and calling them “extreme pornographers” is unacceptable. The fact this behaviour appears to be being condoned and encouraged by Downing Street is even worse. If this kind of behaviour is considered acceptable by the Labour Party, then it is not a party I can support in good conscience. Please communicate to the party leadership that these actions are not building support - instead you are handing Reform (and others) ammunition to use against you. This is not a direction I wish to see the Labour Party go.

To repeat my point I made at the start of this letter, I implore you to support the repeal of the Online Safety Act as a piece of poorly thought out legislation pushed through by the previous government. The solution to the stated aims of the Online Security Act of protecting children do not lie in the route taken. Instead, educating parents to allow them to effectively utilise the tools that are already provided to them is a far more suitable approach. While I am not usually one to make my vote depend upon a single issue, I firmly believe that this Act is actively harmful to the country and I will campaign actively against any party who support it in elections.