The Online Safety Bill

BTS from my interview with Demi

It has been nearly five weeks since phase two of the online safety bill came into effect, specifically regarding “Child safety.” So what does this mean? In the simplest of terms, the Online Safety Act has been put in place to regulate and monitor online sites that are not suitable for children under the age of eighteen. The list of regulated content can be seen below:

• Pornography

• Self-harm

• Eating disorders 

• Suicide

• Bullying

• Abusive or hateful content

• Content which depicts or encourages serious violence or injury

• Content which encourages dangerous stunts and challenges 

• Content which encourages the ingestion, inhalation or exposure to harmful substances.

On first glance, this seems like a great idea, right? If I could have had a childhood with no pro-anna pinterest boards, or chainmail style facebook posts that would threaten my safety if I didn't “like and reshare,” then the 2010s would have been a lot more peaceful… But it's not the 2010s anymore, and we now have AI and face-scanning technology that is required to access pornography sites. 

If the thought of uploading photos of your government-issued identification before wacking one out doesn’t already fill you with dread, there are other options;

Regulations state that you have the following options to prove you're over the age of 18:

• Facial age estimation – you show your face via photo or video, and technology analyses it to estimate your age. 

• Open banking – you permit the age-check service to securely access information from your bank about whether you are over 18. The age-check service then confirms this with the site or app.

• Digital identity services – these include digital identity wallets, which can securely store and share information which proves your age in a digital format.

• Credit card age checks – you provide your credit card details, and a payment processor checks if the card is valid. As you must be over 18 to obtain a credit card, this shows you are over 18.

• Email-based age estimation – you provide your email address, and technology analyses other online services where it has been used – such as banking or utility providers - to estimate your age.  

• Mobile network operator age checks – you give your permission for an age-check service to confirm whether or not your mobile phone number has age filters applied to it. If there are no restrictions, this confirms you are over 18. 

• Photo-ID matching – this is similar to a check when you show a document. For example, you upload an image of a document that shows your face and age, and an image of yourself at the same time – these are compared to confirm if the document is yours. 

So basically, you can not watch “explicit content” without uploading some form of very sensitive, very personal information. But it's all in the name of the children, right? I mean, maybe it's worth allowing the government to farm our data if it means younger people aren't exposed to explicit images. But the thing is, children are more tech savvy than most adults; there are already reports of fake IDs slipping through the safety net, as well as children simply downloading a VPN. 

It's all well and good saying you’re changing us into a surveillance state in the name of children's mental health, but it might be worth looking into the 4.5 million children who are in poverty across the UK. That’s 31% of all children (as of 2024). Or the trans children who are no longer able to access mental health services and gender clinics they so desperately need, causing suicidal tendencies to soar in the trans youth.

“Regarding the Online safety act Platforms, are now required to use age assurance to prevent children from accessing pornography, or content which encourages self-harm, suicide or eating disorder content.

I am a registered mental health nurse and therapist for over 11 years, I specialise in gender identity and queer identity and predominantly work with young people as well as performing pole and burlesque. I'm privileged to share spaces with lots of phenomenal sex workers. My multifaceted life allows me a glimpse into multiple perspectives and I am concerned about young people … gender diverse, trans and queer young people’s experiences of limited access to services that appropriately meet their needs, an increase in restrictions and policing of identities and limiting exploration of identity at a developmentally crucial time. 

Limited/ restricting access to porn is not going to stop anybody finding it. It is however likely to increase shame, stigma and restrict opportunities for transparent conversations around taboo topics and increase harm towards sex workers. Porn is a fantasy, an adult performance, an extension of whatever wild and wonderful things we can dream up. Ensuring that appropriate education comes alongside it not only supports a healthy attitude toward sex, boundaries and consent but facilitates a more respectful attitude towards sex workers. 

If we truly want safety for young people, increasing age appropriate, diverse sex education and critical thinking skills is a good place to start.   My views are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisations I work for or are affiliated with.”

 - Lavender Menace, registered mental health nurse.

There have also been reports of the system glitching and restricting sexual health education services and sexual assault outreach services, only further putting children at risk.

“I was groomed online as a teenager, and I hate that the online safety bill is trying to claim to protect people like me, and from that happening to more people, but actually, it does absolutely nothing and only harms people. It annoys me that my experience is associated with that. There’s so many things victims of grooming want changing and safety measures in place but the bill does absolutely nothing and just pushes it further underground, the perpetrators will always find ways around it, it’s only going to cause more harm like sticking a plaster over a giant wound to try and patch it back together so they can say they fixed it” - Anonymous victim of online abuse.

There's a section on the government website explaining the logistics behind this act, one of the subcategories being “How the Act protects women and girls.” Stressing illegal content includes harassment, stalking, controlling or coercive behaviour, extreme pornography, and intimate image abuse. Which, again, on the surface, would be wonderful, harassment of women has been an issue since the dawn of time. But money and resources would be much more beneficial in funding and educating the police on dealing with stalking effectively, as well as providing victims of sexual assault with efficient justice and recovery programmes. 

Instead, the ‘living in fear’ report exposed a lack of assessments that may be leaving some victims at serious risk. The report concluded:

• Laws and guidance for police are “confusing and inconsistent”.

• There is a lack of understanding by police of the scale and types of stalking in their area.

• Problems with the quality and resourcing of some investigations.

• “Worryingly low” use of stalking prevention orders (STOs).

Furthermore, the Online Safety Bill has posed huge risks for the safety of sex workers. From my experience working alongside sex workers for the past five years, I’ve noticed how easy it is for people to dehumanise those who offer sexual services of any form. It's been drilled into us within the media since being young that “she deserved it because she was a whore,” and I think that translates not only into sexual assault but also generally, a lower quality of life. Even the classic horror movie tropes of the sexy blonde dying first, “but she put out, so she had it coming,” have slowly morphed a consumer's mind into detaching the reality, that sex workers are people with real lives, who are equally deserving of human rights.

I’m sure there are a lot of variables, and narratives adding to the stigma around sex workers, and to dive into that now would only lead me down an array of paths. But it contributes to the reason why I have seen almost no mainstream coverage of how the online safety bill will not only harm, but also endanger the lives of sex workers.

BTS from my interview with Demi

“Despite common misconceptions, sex work isn't quite the oldest industry in the world. Healing, medicine and midwifery are in every society we know of. Sex work usually closely follows that. The desires for life, companionship, knowledge and comfort are ingrained into us. Right now, we are not just being stripped of sex worker rights, society isn't just being denied a valid and natural form of entertainment - we are having our access to information limited, controlled and censored, and that should be concerning for literally everyone.

The online safety act is going after the most vital, necessary human knowledge. To know and understand our own bodies is to have power and control our own bodies - and they don't want that.” - Countess Odelia, domme and sex worker.

After the recent threat of the Nordic model being imposed in the UK, the new bill feels like yet another blow to an already marginalised group. The online safety bill poses threats as it pushes sex workers even further underground, forcing them to censor their work, not only on social media but also on adult websites, making it almost impossible to advertise their services. Escorting services now don't allow “suggestive” profile pictures, meaning that headshots are a must if you want to continue working, although in turn, outing a lot of faceless accounts, potentially putting people at risk. 

“I think the main thing is just how unhelpful it is for Child Protection. It's ridiculously easy to circumvent these new rules, and I think it woefully underestimates how technologically advanced young people and children are these days in pornographic media, and human sexuality. If you want to protect children from sexual harms. The best way to do that is sex education and accepting that these young people are growing into their own sexuality instead of just banning porn. It's a very slippery slope; how long till the written word is banned if it's sexual, what's deemed too sexual? Are we going to have books that are locked off in a safe section of a bookshop? And then how far does that go? In terms of money? I've seen a direct financial hit, and that's going to be affecting all sex workers. I think the bottom line is that it's not going to protect kids. I don't know the statistics anymore, but like, 80% of the internet is porn, so we know what's in people's hearts. We've always stood by eradication is never the answer. Prohibition is never the answer. Famously, with prohibition…  I think the big thing is that we have to be 18 to buy alcohol… but all you're doing is showing somebody your physical ID who's never going to retain that information. They are simply checking you are of age. But that's not the case (with online safety checks) when it's being handled by data companies.”

Mina went on to discuss the Ashley Madison scandal, where hundreds of people's sensitive information was leaked from a notorious dating site, specifically designed to encourage people to cheat.

 “We already know that it's made it more difficult sex workers to make money, but how are you going to measure all the kids we've “saved” by not letting them go on a porn websites? ” - Mina Harder, Online sex worker and writer.

In the UK, while working as a full service sex worker is legal, it is not decriminalised, meaning there are still consequences for their work. It is already illegal for two or more sex workers to work together from the same premises, as this is considered a brothel. This immediately puts people at risk, as they're no longer able to work in the buddy system. In turn, if the location where two or more sex workers are living and operating is rented, the landlord can be charged as a brothel keeper too and can also be prosecuted, forcing sex workers who rent into discretion and secrecy. 

Bearing this in mind, the life of a sex worker is already at risk, and this new bill only pushes people further underground, limiting their work and income and forcing people into situations where they are no longer able to screen their clients. By vetting clients, sex workers can identify individuals who may be dangerous or unreliable, reducing the likelihood of violence, assault, robbery, or exploitation. This practice also allows sex workers to establish boundaries, negotiate terms of service, and ensure safer working conditions. 

“I'm making a lot less money online than usual, losing twitter is affecting in person work too” - Heather, online and in person sex worker. 

RIOT Sex worker pride 2025

This entire bill, like a lot of the government's recent policies, is drowning in irony. In 2018, reports showed that parliament housed porn addicted politicians. The figure of 24,473 attempts, represents about 160 requests per day on average from computers and other devices connected to the parliamentary network, which is used by MPs, peers and staff, between June and October of 2017. And only three years ago, in 2022, Neil Parish told the BBC he was resigning as an MP after admitting he watched pornography twice in Parliament.

There is some hope, though, as of July 29th 2025, over 400,000 signatures had been gathered against the act. There's still time to speak up and ensure your voice is heard around this new bill.