How the Online Safety Act Fails Children AND Free Speech | Broken Custodians EP 5

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 the Online Safety Act’s focus on content moderation was never going to be the best way to protect children, and how the House of Lords has recently forced the Government to announce bolder plans to tackle the functionalities of online platforms that keep children hooked and expose them to privacy and safety risks. Molly and Ben reflect on why the Government’s current approach is failing both free speech and child protection, and why they think age- or functionality-based restrictions will be more successful than trying to regulate ever more categories of online content. The episode ends with a broader discussion of digital ID, parental responsibility, and why getting this right matters both for children’s safety and adults’ right to speak freely. In this episode, Molly and Ben cover: – Why child protection and free speech are complementary rather than competing interests – Why the Online Safety Act has been failing both adults and children – Why regulating the functions and features of the online platforms used by children will be so positive for children Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better. -------------------------- 📰 Subscribe to Broken Custodians on Substack for updates, news, and extras ➤ https://usforthem2020.substack.com 🎧 Prefer audio? Listen on Spotify ➤ https://open.spotify.com/show/7tJAC2d... or Apple Podcasts ➤ https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/br... 🌐 And follow us on Instagram for clips, additional content and new episode announcements ➤   / brokencustodianspodcast   -------------------------- Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:50 – Why Free Speech Matters for Child Protection 04:05 – Campaign Work on Smartphones and Social Media 06:05 – The Libertarian Case for Restricting Children’s Access to Social Media 07:20 – Is Free Speech an Absolute Right? 09:35 – What the Online Safety Act Actually Does 13:40 – Why Content Regulation Fails Children 17:15 – A Different Approach: Addictive Features and Functions 21:25 – Is This Really a Social Media Ban? 24:45 – Making Adult Platforms Freer by Protecting Children 27:25 – What the Government Has Now Committed To 30:05 – Digital ID, Age Checks and Privacy Concerns 34:35 – Why Child Protection and Free Speech Go Together