Episode 5 - How the UK's Online Safety Act Fails Children AND Free Speech

In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem discuss the libertarian case for restrictions on children’s access to harmful social media, and why this is consistent with the free speech of adults.They explain why free speech matters to them as much as child protection, and why the Online Safety Act has been failing on both fronts: infringing the free speech of adults in problematic ways, while doing too little to protect children from the addictive and exploitative features used by social media and gaming platforms.The conversation also looks at how the House of Lords has recently forced the Government to announce bolder plans to tackle the harmful functionalities of online platforms, and the broader debate around age-based restrictions, digital IDs, and parental responsibility. More broadly, the episode insists that a stronger and more successful approach to child protection online is essential for restoring the free speech of adults.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.