Recommendation 28

Both the Department and Ofcom see collaboration, both nationally and internationally, as crucial to achieving change on behalf of the British public in line with the Act. Working in partnership with other regulators will help them be alert to the next set of issues arising and how they might be addressed.65 For example, the Global Online Safety Regulators Network, which Ofcom helped launch in November 2022, has enabled Ofcom to get to grips with the emerging harm of sextortion (sex-based blackmail) and talk to law enforcement agencies about this more quickly than it would otherwise have done.66 The Act also requires Ofcom power to tackle fraudulent advertising. Ofcom told us that it is recommending that larger platforms should use trusted flaggers, organisations like HMRC, the Financial Conduct Authority, and other civil society organisations that are well-placed to know that something is fraudulent. It is also recommending that the services have in place a tougher flagger system so that they can act more quickly against criminals who use whichever loophole has opened up.67