Recommendation 15

HM Government · verbatim extract Rejected

We thank the Committee for its suggestion. However, we do not believe that reformulating this regulatory framework around a single foundational duty would be desirable or effective. It would leave Ofcom with very high-level duties to enforce against which would likely create an uncertain and unclear operating environment. Such an environment could also lead to a reduction in legal certainty for services, Ofcom and users as well as potential delays to the vital safety benefits for users that this legislation will bring. The framework will improve user safety by creating duties on platforms to assess risk for specific categories of harms, and to put in place systems and processes to mitigate identified risks. The Bill directly requires service providers to assess the risk of harm linked to how their services are designed and to consider how a comprehensive range of functionalities and the way in which people use their services affect risk. For example they will have to look at how users can send messages to or play games with other users and express views on content through “likes” or voting. The duties include specific requirements to put in place proportionate systems to remove and limit the spread of illegal content and to protect children from harmful content. The largest services will also need to set and enforce clear terms of service for tackling legal but harmful content. Online Abuse and the Criminal Law