Source · Select Committees · Petitions Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
As part of its role as the new online safety regulator, we recommend that Ofcom...
Recommendation
As part of its role as the new online safety regulator, we recommend that Ofcom should regularly report on the incidence of online abuse, illegal hate speech, and Violence Against Women and Girls content on the largest social media platforms. This should include disaggregating estimates of the likelihood of a user encountering or being the target of abusive content according to characteristics including race, disability, sexuality, and gender, as well as differentiating between child and adult users. (Paragraph 22) Social media and user safety
Government Response Summary
The government stated the Online Safety Bill will require large service providers to publish annual transparency reports on online harms, and Ofcom will produce its own report, gather data, and conduct risk assessments and reviews to understand prevalence.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
We agree that it is important to be clear and comprehensive about what types of content are harmful to children and to adults, but are taking a different approach to that suggested by the Committee. It is essential that the regulatory framework is evidence-based, flexible and future-proofed. The Online Safety Bill will create a framework under which the government will consult with Ofcom before designating categories of priority harmful content in secondary legislation. Service providers will have duties to protect children and adults from this designated priority content. As well as creating the legislative framework for designating priority harms, the Bill will include clear definitions of non-designated content that is harmful to children and will set out the priority content that is harmful to adults. Service providers will have additional duties to protect children from this non-designated harmful content, and must report to Ofcom on any non-designated content harmful to adults that they become aware of. Designating priority harms in secondary legislation will mean that they can be kept under review and updated to reflect emerging harms without requiring any changes to primary legislation. This will also allow for parliamentary oversight and democratic debate about the harms to be included in the list. This approach balances the need to give certainty to businesses on the harms they must address, whilst ensuring the legislation remains agile and flexible to emerging harms.