The UK government is set to introduce "world first" internet safety laws designed to make the country the safest place in the world to be online.
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A white paper on online harms, published jointly by the Departments for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Home Office, proposes strict new rules be introduced that require firms to take responsibility for their users and their safety, as well as the content that appears on their services.
It suggests punishing social media companies with large fines or blocking them from being accessed.
Overseen by an independent regulator, internet companies which break these rules could even see senior management held personally liable.
A newly introduced duty of care will require firms to take more responsibility for the safety of users and more actively tackle the harm caused by content or activity on their platforms.
The regulator will have the power to issue "substantial fines, block access to sites and potentially impose liability on individual members of senior management", the proposal says.
The government is currently consulting on whether to create a new regulator or use an existing one, such as Ofcom, to enforce the new rules.
The proposed measures are part of a government pledge to make the UK one of the safest places in the world to be online, and comes in response to concerns over the growth of violent content, encouraging suicide, disinformation and the exposure of children to cyberbullying and other inappropriate material online.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May said the proposals were a sign the age of self-regulation for internet companies was over.
"The internet can be brilliant at connecting people across the world - but for too long these companies have not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people, from harmful content," May said.
"That is not good enough, and it is time to do things differently."
The proposed new laws will apply to any company that allows users to share or discover user-generated content or interact with each other online, the Government said, applicable to companies of all sizes from social media platforms to file-hosting sites, forum, messaging services and search engines.
A 12-week consultation of the proposals will now take place before the government will publish its final proposals for legislation.
Australian Associated Press
