UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – UK’s media regulator imposes tough rules on digital platforms, mandating tech giants to block harmful content and verify users’ age or face billion-pound fines.
As The Standard reports, Ofcom warns that social media firms failing to protect children from harmful content could face major sanctions.
What new online safety rules has Ofcom imposed to protect children?
Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom has issued its definitive Children’s Codes, outlining legal obligations for sites to protect young users.
The new codes mandate that any platform featuring harmful content, such as pornography, or material promoting self-harm and eating disorders, is required to enforce strict age checks to protect children.
Platforms may use methods such as facial recognition, photo ID validation, or credit card checks to ensure users’ age is verified more accurately.
Under the new rules, platforms must modify their algorithms, filtering out harmful content from children’s feeds and recommendations to avoid sending them into harmful online environments.
As part of the updated guidelines, platforms must ensure children can control their online experience. This includes blocking harmful content and restricting unwanted comments and connection requests.
The codes outline 40 essential measures that companies must implement by July to ensure compliance with the Online Safety Act.
In the most serious cases, Ofcom can impose fines of up to £18 million or 10% of global revenues, and may also request court orders to ban access to sites within the UK.
What did Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dawes say about protecting children online?
Ofcom chief executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, stated,
“These changes are a reset for children online. They will mean safer social media feeds with less harmful and dangerous content, protections from being contacted by strangers and effective age checks on adult content.”
She added,
“Ofcom has been tasked with bringing about a safer generation of children online, and if companies fail to act they will face enforcement.”
What did Peter Kyle say about the new online safety codes?
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle described the release of the codes as a “watershed moment” following years of “toxic, harmful online environments.”
He stated,
“Growing up in the digital age should mean children can reap the immense benefits of the online world safely but in recent years too many young people have been exposed to lawless, poisonous environments online which we know can lead to real and sometimes fatal consequences. This cannot continue.”
Mr Kyle said,
“The Children’s Safety codes should be a watershed moment – turning the tide on toxic experiences on these platforms – with the largest social media companies now having to prioritise children’s safety by law. This means age checks to stop children being exposed to the most extreme harmful content, as well as changes to platform design including algorithms to stop young users being served up harmful content they often aren’t even seeking.”
Technology Secretary said,
“Like parents across the country I expect to see these laws help create a safer online world, so we set every child up for the best start in life,” adding, “But we won’t hesitate to go further to protect our children; they are the foundation not the limit when it comes to children’s safety online.”
What did Ian Russell say about Ofcom’s new Online Safety Codes?
Several online safety campaigners have raised concerns that the Online Safety Act, in its present form, fails to protect internet users, especially children, and overlooks major concerns.
Ian Russell, who heads the Molly Rose Foundation, founded in honour of his daughter, who ended her life at 14 in 2017 after viewing harmful content on social media, slammed Ofcom’s codes, saying they will not protect young users.
He appealed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to take charge and enhance the Online Safety Act.
Mr Russell
“I am dismayed by the lack of ambition in today’s codes. Instead of moving fast to fix things, the painful reality is that Ofcom’s measures will fail to prevent more young deaths like my daughter Molly’s.”
He stated,
“Ofcom’s risk averse approach is a bitter pill for bereaved parents to swallow. Their overly cautious codes put the bottom line of reckless tech companies ahead of tackling preventable harm.”
Molly Rose chairman said,
“We lose at least one young life to tech-related suicide every single week in the UK which is why today’s sticking plaster approach cannot be allowed to stand,” adding, “A speedy remedy is within reach if the Prime Minister personally intervenes to fix this broken system. Less than one in 10 parents think Ofcom is doing enough and Sir Keir Starmer must commit without delay to strengthen online safety legislation.”
What did the IWF report reveal about rising child sexual abuse imagery in 2024?
According to the Internet Watch Foundation, 291,273 reports of child sexual abuse imagery were filed in 2024.
In its annual report, the organisation highlighted a growing number of incidents linked to emerging threats such as AI-generated abuse, sextortion, and the malicious distribution of private images.
The IWF stated that children under 18 are now experiencing a surge in sexual abuse risks online.
To tackle rising threats, the organisation revealed a new safety tool available to smaller platforms freely to help detect and block abuse imagery.
The IWF’s tool, Image Intercept, is designed to identify and prevent the circulation of over 2.8 million digitally tagged images classified as illegal.
What did Derek Ray-Hill say about the growing online threats to young people?
Derek Ray-Hill, interim chief executive at the IWF, stated,
“Young people are facing rising threats online where they risk sexual exploitation, and where images and videos of that exploitation can spread like wildfire. New threats like AI and sexually coerced extortion are only making things more dangerous.”
Mr Ray-Hill said,
“Many well-intentioned and responsible platforms do not have the resources to protect their sites against people who deliberately upload child sexual abuse material,”
adding,
“That is why we have taken the initiative to help these operators create safer online spaces by providing a free-of-charge hash checking service that will identify known criminal content.”