The British Baroness who is taming big tech

Internet companies have for years been a source of embarrassment for regulators. Government-appointed agencies tasked with keeping digital markets equitable have, mostly, let tech giants acquire whatever they want - data, rivals, promising startups - to grow into digital monoliths.

That laissez-faire approach is starting to change. In 2022 the British government will be one of the first in the world to force companies to cut back on the spread of harmful content or face big fines. The Federal Trade Commission, newly led by Lina Khan, has warned it could unwind mergers. The UK did just that in November with the purchase of Giphy by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly known as Facebook), a first for Big Tech.

There's a spark giving fresh momentum to all this action. It came in September 2021 when a statutory code of practice called the Age Appropriate Design Code came into force in the UK 

It imposed 15 standards on all internet companies to make their services safer for children. Spearheaded by Beeban Kidron, a former filmmaker and a member of the UK Parliament's House of Lords, it has quickly become one of the most impactful pieces of legislation ever to target technology firms.

The code, which defines children as individuals under the age of 18, includes orders for online companies to:   

• Turn off location tracking of kids by default
• Refrain from using a child's personal data to hurt their well being. In other words, avoid auto-play features that track what they have been watching to tee up the next video
• Give children bite-sized, easy to understand explanations of a company's terms of service
• Cease the use of nudge techniques that might encourage poor privacy decisions, for instance by making a 'yes' option more prominent than a 'no'

These are not requests but requirements baked into law and backed up by large fines. In July and August 2021, just ahead of the law's deadline, large Internet firms announced a flurry of changes that mirrored the new rules:

• Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube said it would turn off autoplay for users aged 13-17 and make all videos uploaded by kids private by default
• Alphabet's Google blocked targeted advertising for under-18s and turned off location tracking for under-18s by default
• Facebook said it would ban hyper-targeted ads for under-18s on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, meaning advertisers could not see their interests and activity on other apps and websites to build profiles. They now only see age, gender and location
• Instagram stopped adults from messaging children who did not follow them on the app
• TikTok stopped pinging 13-15 year-olds with notifications after 9 pm

Kidron is pleased, but not entirely satisfied. "They have a lot more to do," she says. Recommendation algorithms on platforms like Instagram have, for instance, shown disturbing content to teen girls who searched for healthy eating content.

Still, what is remarkable about Kidron's code is that technology companies have implemented it globally and not just in the United Kingdom, just as they did the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

Before all this, Kidron was one of the world's most successful female film directors. Brought up in North London, she pivoted from an early love of photography to making movies when she was in her 20s, going on to direct the 1995 American road comedy to Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in 2004. In 2012 she was given the title of baroness after being appointed to the House of Lords.  

Then in 2013, she made a documentary, InRealLife, which followed British teens as they lived out their lives in the real world and online. 

The film, which criticised tech companies for exploiting children's data for profit, was described by some critics as alarmist — but it was also hugely prescient. 

Far more children are online today than eight years ago, and they face a flood of new issues — from revenge porn to bullying, from FOMO to mental health and social comparison.

The documentary led Kidron to believe that children needed special protections online. She declined all other movie projects to devote herself to campaigning and founded 5Rights, a charity named after a series of fundamental rights that children should be entitled to in the digital world.

Kidron realised that with her new title and seat in the House of Lords, she could augment the UK's yet-to-be-passed Data Protection Act with special rules about children — what became known in shorthand as the Children's Code. It was a politically shrewd move, but getting there was an uphill battle. 

At one point, Kidron found herself facing 12 other ministers and government officials who gave her "many, many reasons" why her amendment to the privacy law would not work. She would never get the support of the country's lower House of Parliament, one told her.

There were complaints from tech companies too, that the rules were too broad and that parents should be the arbiters of children's Internet use. Strict new standards might push children to untrustworthy services, the firms argued and determining someone's age could hurt their privacy.

But Kidron was armed with minute details; and she turned out to be good at amassing support in Parliament, according to a senior researcher who worked with her. Over time she successfully negotiated for the government to add her code into law. It came into force in September. 

Her greatest achievement, she says, was legally defining children as being under 18 — tech firms had lobbied against it. Most Internet platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, require users to be at least 13. "But ask any parent, 'Is a 13-year-old an adult?'" she says. "14-to-17-year-olds arguably need more protections than young kids, who are better supervised."  

Defining age is pivotal to her latest campaign: She is encouraging the government to introduce a new code that forces Internet companies to check when kids are using their services and protect them accordingly.

To misquote the old adage, nobody knows you are a kid on the Internet. Many simply lie about their age to use a service. 

But Kidron's charity says Internet companies could work on thwarting that since many of the techniques they use to profile people for targeted ads already help them estimate age. They would be even more effective when combined with biometric tools like facial analysis — assuming all data is immediately discarded.

 "I am very determined that age assurance must be privacy-preserving," Kidron says.

It is a tricky balancing act and one that will meet further resistance. But Kidron benefits from the growing public scepticism of Big Tech since her documentary came out. "The world is a very different place now," she says. 

"People not only see what I saw, but they see my insistence that getting it right for kids also teaches us what good looks like."

Parmy Olson

Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology.

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement.