How to create a world as age appropriate as apple pie
A true story about what happens when "age appropriate" is allowed to become a subjective and politicised decision about how information is filtered to the young people who need it the most.
All posts filed under: UK policy
Recent UK government policies, consultations, and controversies related to digital and tech.
The Recovery Roadmap
I was honoured to be asked to write this report on the UK Tech Cluster Group’s Recovery Roadmap summit, ably supported by the UKTCG leadership team, showcasing their policy recommendations to support the tech sector’s role in the post-COVID recovery.
The three tests of internet regulation
I've been scratching away at a rough axiom which I call the three tests of internet regulation. It would apply to anyone involved in the shaping of legislation, either inside or outside of government, as well as the media.
Table layout: or, how not to shape internet regulation in 2020
It's 2020, and the future of the internet is being shaped by consultation responses sent in Microsoft Word table cells through one draft iteration resulting in a PDF.
The Startup Manifesto
I was delighted to contribute to The Entrepreneurs Network and Coadec’s joint 2019 General Election manifesto, where we set forth our policy ideas for the next government. My contributions, as always, were around internet regulation.
The Online Harms framework just got a lot darker
Something distressing happened this week in the Commons chamber, and the Prime Minister wasn’t even there.
What you need to know about a No Deal Brexit
I didn’t think we’d be here, but here we are. In my capacity as a Policy Fellow at COADEC, the tech policy body for the UK’s tech startups, I have written a plain-English guide for tech and digital businesses to use to prepare for a No Deal Brexit. While the guidance is aimed at startups and scaleups, the advice is applicable to all tech businesses regardless of where they are on their journey.
Tech policy is no place for hero fantasies
When someone says the internet is the "wild west", what he's really saying is that he has a personal fantasy about being the sheriff.
Just how bad is the ICO’s draft age appropriate design code?
The draft Code is a recipe for creating a generation of children who will grow up sheltered, shattered, and shamed, as their outlooks and formative experiences are defined by safety warnings, age gates, and privatised surveillance.
Won’t somebody think of the democracy?
I wrote for PublicTechnology about the Minister for Health exploiting technology fears to run roughshod over consultative democracy and the rule of law.
Named Persons II: Scotland’s next mass civilian database
Last week I was chatting with some rather cracking professional digital rights activists. The conversation included my attempt to get them, from their London/English perspective, to understand the different cultural approach to mass data collection and databases that we live with here in Scotland. All too often, data collection projects which would be seen as violations of privacy, data protection, and the right to private life anywhere else are seen as “unquestionably legitimate and benign” […]
It’s happening: the EU has announced #VATMOSS reforms
Today the European Commission has announced a raft of proposed reforms to the VATMOSS system.