Conor D’Arcy, Head of Research and Policy, Money and Mental Health
Submission to the Joint pre-legislative scrutiny Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill
24 September 2021
Money and Mental Health has submitted a response to the Joint pre-legislative scrutiny Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill, which aims to tackle harmful content online. We welcome the recent inclusion of user-generated scams in the draft Bill. However, by excluding scams carried out through online adverts, the Bill leaves millions of people, including those with mental health problems, exposed to professional scammers. Our response calls for the government to include scam adverts in scope of the Bill, and to place greater responsibility on social media companies and search engines to prevent fraudulent adverts from appearing online.