WASHINGTON, LONDON — The U.S. and the U.K. have signed a joint agreement to coordinate efforts to regulate internet content — including adult content — in order to “advance stronger protections for children.”
The agreement was announced in an official notice from the U.K. government.
According to the statement, since the U.K. and the U.S. “share fundamental values and a commitment to democracy and human rights, including privacy and freedom of expression,” the countries intend to establish a “joint children’s online safety working group.”
To make the internet safer for children, the statement notes, the two nations will aim “to ensure all users have the skills and resources they need to make safe and informed choices online and advance stronger protections for children.”
Although, the U.K. is a constitutional monarchy — with no written constitution, no absolute free-speech legal tradition or anything like First Amendment jurisprudence, and an unelected chamber of aristocrats in their Parliament — the agreement and the U.K. government statement contend that U.S. and U.K. rights and practices can be considered compatible in order to enforce internet regulations of materials either or both governments consider “harmful to children.”
Exporting the Online Safety Act to the U.S.
The U.K. government statement declares that online platforms, including social media companies, “have a moral responsibility to respect human rights and put in place additional protections for children’s safety and privacy” and that “age-appropriate safeguards, including protections from content and interactions that harm children’s health and safety, are vital to achieve this goal.”
Among the content considered harmful, the U.K. government lists “sexual exploitation and abuse” and “content that is abusive (including technology-facilitated gender-based violence).”
As XBIZ reported, according to several anti-porn crusaders consulted by the U.K. government during the drafting of the Online Safety Act and the review of pornography laws currently underway and led by the Baroness Bertin, however, all adult content would fall into either or both of these categories.
By signing the joint agreement, the U.S. appears to endorse the U.K.’s controversial Online Safety Act, which mandates age verification. The OSA is mentioned by the U.K. government statement in the agreement, specifically noting that “platforms must use ‘highly effective’ privacy preserving age assurance technologies to prevent children from encountering the most harmful content, including pornography (which includes violent pornography) and content which encourages or promotes suicide.”
Age verification of adult content has repeatedly been struck down as unconstitutional by U.S. courts. The issue is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court in the landmark case FSC v. Paxton, which has not yet been decided.
The U.S. domestic legislative proposal most analogous to the OSA is the Kid’s Online Safety Act (KOSA), which is currently stuck in Congress, after failing to move forward following several years of debates, because of serious constitutional and privacy concerns.