Online encouragement of self-harm will be criminalised under an updated version of the Online Safety Bill, the UK government has said.
Culture secretary Michelle Donelan said the update would create a new offence that would target communications that encourage someone to physically harm themselves, making it illegal to do so, and bringing it in line with communications that encourage suicide, which are already illegal.
Britain’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Secretary Michelle Donelan leaves after attending the first Cabinet meeting under the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 10 Downing Street, in central London, on Oct. 26, 2022. (Niklas Halle’n/AFP via Getty Images)
Social media platforms will be required to remove such content, and any person found to have sent such communications will face prosecution….