Online safety and the Queen’s Speech
Digital Charter will ensure the UK is the safest place in the world to be online
The Queen’s Speech has set out two key areas that will have implications for protecting young people, and all citizens, when they use the internet.
A new digital charter proposes to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online, while a new law will allow citizens to better control their data.
The Queen’s Speech sets out proposals for a new Digital Charter, which will have two core objectives: making the UK ‘the best place to start and run a digital business’ and the ‘safest place in the world to be online’.
The Government proposes to work with tech companies, charities and wider to develop the Charter which will seek to balance freedoms with appropriate protections to improve safety online, particularly for children.
Data Protection Bill
The Queen’s Speech also sets out plans for a new law that will ‘ensure that the United Kingdom retains its world-class regime protecting personal data’.
The Bill will allow citizens to better control their data, with a specific benefit for younger users as the new law will give people the right to demand that social networks delete any personal data they had shared before turning 18.
The Bill will also implement the General Data Protection Regulation, due to come into force in May 2018, which sets out new requirements for organisations that hold personal data.