Last minute amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will have huge implications for freedom of expression and privacy in the UK, Open Rights Group has warned. The digital rights campaigners have raised concerns that MPs and peers are not being given sufficient time to scrutinise the amendments which could have far reaching consequences if powers are abused by the current and future governments.

The Bill returns to the Lords in its final stages on Wednesday 25 March.

James Baker, Platform Power Programme Manager at Open Rights Group said:

“Amendments with far-reaching consequences for freedom of expression and privacy are being rushed through without proper time for political scrutiny.

“We could be forced to hand over personal data as part of a digital ID age check to access parts of the Internet and anyone under 18 could be completely banned from other platforms – all at a ministers’ discretion.

“We urge parliamentarians to think twice about giving current and future ministers such vast, far-reaching and changeable powers.”

Changing data protection law

Amendment 38B could give Ministers the powers to force anyone over 13 to use unsafe and unregulated age-ID services to access certain Internet services. It could be used to write new regulations that require people use particular methods of proving their age online such as a Government issued Digital ID.

Government ministers will be able to override what Ofcom or the ICO consider to be a suitable way to establish a users age online as they will no longer have to determine whether it is proportionate for a 13 year old’s data to be processed compared with the risks posed by age-gating, or whether there are less invasive means to achieve this.

Teenagers could be forced to complete checks that:

• Scan their faces, or other biometric data, to guess their age; or

• Track and profile their behaviour on a given online platform, and sharing these profiles with commercial data brokers, to guess who they are and how old they are;

• Involve submitting identity documents.

• Use Government Digital ID

The Government has refused to regulate the ever-growing age assurance industry despite market leader Yoti being fined by the Spanish data protection authority for the way in which it handles personal data.

Open Rights Group is calling for MPs to support Amendment (e) — Proportionality Requirement for Regulations under sections 214A and Article 8ZA, proposed by human rights organisation Liberty. This amendment would, at least, address some of the most pressing concerns surrounding proportionality of placing the internet between an age based ID checkpoint.

Restricting children’s access to the Internet

Amendment 37(a) gives Ministers the powers “to require internet service providers to restrict access by children to certain internet services”.

This will give ministers huge powers to restrict the Internet without having to pass new legislation. They will not even have to demonstrate harm to children, effectively ripping up work carried out by Ofcom to assess services according to the risks and harms they pose.

This mean that the current or future governments could restrict content they are ideologically opposed to. For example, a Reform government could force ID checks to access LGBTQ content as part of their manifesto commitment “to end trans ideology” in schools.

ORG calls on MPs to focus on the root causes of online harm by addressing engagement-driven design and data-fuelled advertising business models, while supporting digital literacy, resilience among young people, and the growth of safer, more responsible platform alternatives.