Source · Select Committees · Petitions Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Rejected
Paragraph: 45
We recommend that the Online Safety Bill should include a statutory duty for the Government...
Recommendation
We recommend that the Online Safety Bill should include a statutory duty for the Government to consult with civil society organisations representing children and users who are most affected by online abuse on the legislation’s ongoing effectiveness at tackling online abuse, and how it could be refined to better achieve this goal. This should include, but need not be limited to, explicitly requiring the Secretary of State to consult with such organisations when reviewing the regulatory framework as set out in Section 115 of the draft Bill. The organisations consulted in this way should include those consulted by Ofcom in developing codes of practice and transparency reporting guidance for platforms.
Government Response Summary
The government rejected the recommendation for a statutory duty to consult civil society, explaining that the Secretary of State has flexibility to consult as appropriate and Ofcom already has extensive consultation duties under the Bill.
Paragraph Reference:
45
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
We thank the Committee for this recommendation. The Online Safety Bill is designed to bring into scope services which pose the greatest risk of harm to users and where there is currently limited regulatory oversight. In order for the regulatory framework to be effective, the scope of the Bill must be targeted and proportionate. This legislation is intended to protect children not only on services which are targeted at them, but on any in-scope services which they are likely to access. All services will need to assess whether their service is likely to be accessed by children and if so, deliver additional protections for them. The child user condition is met if children form a significant number or proportion of users on a service, or if the service, or any part of it, is of a kind that is likely to attract a significant number or proportion of child users. This condition has no relation to a platform’s size; a service will meet the condition if a significant number or proportion of their users are children. Services who do not consider they are likely to be accessed by children will need to record the evidence that they have that children are not accessing their service, and keep this under review. The requirement to undertake, and keep up to date, a suitable and sufficient assessment about child access is an enforceable requirement. Ofcom may take enforcement action where providers do not carry out an assessment and keep it up to date, (and might be alerted to this via user complaints for example), including the potential for fines.