Ofcom tells tech companies to hide toxic online content from children

Online Safety

Ofcom has warned that it will ban social media sites for under-18s that fail to comply with new online safety rules.

Under proposals undergoing a consultation, the regulator has called for “robust” age-checking measures to protect children from being recommended harmful content by an algorithm.

Ofcom’s remit is to set broadcasting rules and listen to complaints about content. The latest Online Safety Act has pledged to name and shame failing platforms.

“Firstly, online services must establish whether children are likely to access their site — or part of it,” Ofcom said of its act published on Wednesday (May 8).

“And secondly, if children are likely to access it, the company must carry out a further assessment to identify the risks their service poses to children, including the risk that come from the design of their services, their functionalities, and algorithms. They then need to introduce various safety measures to mitigate these risks.

“Our consultation proposes more than 40 safety measures that services would need to take — all aimed at making sure children enjoy safer screen time when they are online.”

Ofcom said measures would insist on robust age checks, safer algorithms, and effective moderation.

It said it hoped this would stop youngsters from accessing pornography and being added to group chats where they could see potentially harmful content.

Meta and Snapchat are among the technology companies to have announced greater protections to stop under-18s from accessing harmful material, the BBC reported.

The new rules are part of a consultation running until July 17.

Among those taking part will be a group of bereaved parents, who have warned that the Online Safety Act does not go far enough.

The Bereaved Families for Online Safety group has sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, urging both to pledge to do more for child online safety.

“We collectively fear that Ofcom’s proposed approach may be insufficient to tackle the growing risks of grooming, sexual abuse, content that promotes or facilitates acts of serious violence, and the active incitement of acts of suicide and self-harm among young people,” the letter says.

Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan appeared on BBC Breakfast this week to address concerns.

“I feel your frustration on this and if we could fully implement the bill tomorrow I’d be doing it, but there is a bit of a trade-off,” she said.

“These are companies that are multi-billion-pound organisations, what we don’t want to do is do it so fast that it has lots of loopholes or that they can easily litigate and it’s chewed up in the courts for years. We want this to be robust, we want it to be bulletproof to make sure that it actually delivers.”

To receive the best stories in your inbox every day, click here to register for one or more newsletters from The Standard.