The Online Safety Act isn't fit for purpose – so rewrite it

Want to order dinner from Pizza Hut? You'll have to show ID before you can take the box.

- CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER

Want to learn about what’s happening in Gaza and Ukraine via social media? Ditto. Do you want to watch an MP’s Commons speech on stopping child sexual abuse, sign up to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new political party, or send a message to a friend on Bluesky? Listen to a podcast on Spotify? Get online support to stop smoking or drinking? Yes, altogether now: you'll have to show ID first.

Welcome to the new normal, thanks to the government’s Online Safety Act. Possibly our most vaguely drafted bit of legislation, it limped into force at the end of July with the stated aim of restricting children’s access to pornography and any material that promotes suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, or otherwise abusive and hateful behaviour.