Ed Taps Elf

Clearly a lot of people, mainly youngsters, are having mental health issues due to Internet content. You’re never going to stop youngsters using it, so the only way is to stop, or at least make it costly, for people posting harmful content.

People don’t take legal action because it is usually too difficult  to establish the identity of the people who are posting the content, and sometimes because the posts are on favourite platforms owned by huge organisations employing armies of lawyers.

My system will provide a quick, easy and cheap way to bring a case to court. The Law Society and Bar Association are right behind it plus some of the country’s smartest hackers who have been recruited to identify abusers. 

The scheme should be self-funding through the settlements, costs and damages we collect but, in addition, I am setting up a public fund to accept donations to support prosecutions. I expect many people, and some virtue-signalling organisations, will want to contribute and I shall be the fund’s Trustee.

Officially, of course, the motivation is to deter abusers. Where these are under age their parents can be indicted as co-defendants. Kids may not be afraid of the law, but their parents usually are, and hopefully some have deterrent value with their children.

“20% of 8 to 16 year olds, 23% of 17 to 19 year olds and 21% of 20 to 25 year olds have mental health issues,’ I tell the Cabinet, “ and experts believe that a lot of it is attributable to Internet usage. By tackling it with a real, workable solution we will look like a caring government solving one of the big contemporary problems – which is exactly the kind of government people want to vote for.”.

“Good thinking, Secretary of State, “ the PM tells me, “I think we can all agree that this would help us on the doorstep.”

They all nod along.

As Trustee I shall have a say over which prosecutions shall be pursued which I anticipate becoming  a lucrative side-line.