Read the full open letter and add your individual or organisational signature of support: https://nsun.org.uk/news/open-letter-on-self-harm-and-the-online-safety-bill-make-space-and-self-injury-support/

You may have seen news about the Online Harms Bill making it's way through parliament recently. Along with Make Space and NSUN, we are concerned about the potential unintended consequences of a self-harm related offence in the Online Safety Bill. This new offence would make it illegal to create content that is capable of "encouraging or assisting" self-harm.

We are worried about the potential for this to be interpreted very broadly and although we agree with making the online environment as safe as possible, this bill has the potential to criminalise forms of peer support and vital harm minimisation information sharing.

Make Space wrote this piece about their concerns in January: https://nsun.org.uk/self-harm-and-the-internet-a-user-led-critique-of-the-proposed-online-safety-bill/

Although there may explanatory notes encouraging its narrow application (where there is "malicious intent" behind the content creation), explanatory notes are not legally binding and may not capture the nuances.
 
In response to these concerns and others, we are now calling for three actions:
1) "Malicious intent" to be an explicit requirement in the wording of the bill
2) Self-harm specific organisations to be consulted on further developments 
3) For those reporting/campaigning on the to do so with far greater nuance, taking into account the impact of the bill on those who live with self-harm.

Read the full open letter and add your individual or organisational signature of support: https://nsun.org.uk/news/open-letter-on-self-harm-and-the-online-safety-bill-make-space-and-self-injury-support/