BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, has welcomed the government’s plans to set up a new independent regulator to make the internet less harmful, but says regulation alone is not the answer.
It also welcomes the government’s consultation on the role and remit of the intended regulator and will be submitting it’s view on this and other aspects of the white paper during the consultation period.
BCS, which is both an educational charity as well as the professional body for IT, has called for a national cyber-safety programme to be introduced in schools if young people are to be protected. BCS says its own research shows that younger pupils want to know more about how to look out for potential dangers online.
Adam Thilthorpe, Director of External Affairs at BCS says: “Education is the key to preventing harm online and it should be introduced in tandem with regulation. Without also informing children and young people about the dangers and teaching them how to navigate the internet safely, then they will always be vulnerable and open to exploitation from unscrupulous elements online.”
In the government’s Online Harms White Paper, revealed today (8 April), a series of tough new measures are being proposed to clamp down on online companies themselves in order to deal with serious harms that are facilitated by the internet. Its scope is wide ranging and covers, for instance, a new statutory ‘duty of care’ to make companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users, and stringent requirements on tech companies to ensure child abuse and terrorist content is not disseminated online.
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