From 2018 until 2023, Carnegie UK supported research and campaign activities aimed to protect UK social media users from harm, tackling a major threat to our wellbeing.
This work, delivered in concert with almost 50 partners, culminated in the passage of the Online Safety Act.
50 Partners
The number of partner organisations we worked with online safety.
5 Years
The programme ran from 2018-2023.
Project summary
From 2018 Carnegie UK published a series of blogs by William Perrin and Professor Lorna Woods which outlined a new proposal for social media regulation. Their ideas drew from the long-held principles of health and safety laws – imposing a statutory duty of care and enforcing that with a regulator independent of government. A year later, the then UK Government published its White Paper on tackling online harm, with this duty of care approach at its core.
From 2018-23 Carnegie UK worked to ensure that the Online Safety Act delivered that vision. We provided evidence to multiple Parliamentary committees and inquiries, while also convening and advising other charities, think tanks and campaign groups with a range of interests in the issue.
Our work was repeatedly cited in debates by Parliamentarians of both Houses and the value of our work and advice to Peers was acknowledged by both the Labour and Liberal Democrat frontbench spokespeople at Lords Report.
Following the passage of the Act in 2023, Carnegie UK decided it was the right point to stop our policy work on online safety, with a view that other organisations were better placed to continue this work into future phases. However, the Online Safety Network, led by our former associate Maeve Walsh continue to play a crucial role in this policy space.
An archive of our dedicated Online Safety Act resource page can be read here.
- Blog
Online safety and Carnegie UK
Today, the King gave his assent to new legislation designed to protect UK social media users from harm. This follows five years of work by Carnegie UK, working in concert with over 50 partners, to raise concerns about online safety, arguing for an innovative approach to tackle the problem. In 2018, we published a series […]
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