Labour pledges to toughen online safety laws

Labour ministers have vowed to do more to toughen online safety laws after Ofcom was accused of being too soft on technology companies.

Peter Kyle, UK technology secretary, has said the government is committed to “building on the Online Safety Act”.

Passed last year, the legislation intends to keep children safer online by mandating social media platforms to implement stricter controls on harmful content.  

In May, Ofcom, which is responsible for the implementation of the act, issued a draft code of practice to outline how it expects platforms to protect children. The code has more than 40 measures, including an expectation for companies to ensure algorithms, such as “For You” pages, do not share potentially harmful content for children.

However, for months charities and bereaved parents have said the bill does not go far enough.

Child safety advocates have now also identified significant loopholes in Ofcom's draft code of practice, claiming that the regulator has identified risks to children but has not required the companies to act on them.

In response, more than 20 groups have criticised Ofcom for failing to fully implement the Online Safety Act.

Charities including Barnardo’s and Molly Rose Foundation have said that the draft rules published by the regulator would “not bring about the changes that children need and deserve, or that parents, parliamentarians and civil society expect”.

They continued: “We must see a shift in the regulator’s approach to ensure it is implementing a regulatory regime which prioritises children’s safety and can grapple with the full scale of risk to children online. Ofcom must go further and use its full powers to demand bold and meaningful change from tech companies.”

Kyle told The Times enhancing online safety was “an absolute priority” for Labour.

He added the Ofcom draft was a “significant and positive shift” for children and young people but there was more to do.

“I met many of these campaigners in my first week as a cabinet minister and I commit to working with them and Ofcom to ensure the act is delivering the protections it promised and building on it where necessary.

“We must see a shift in the regulator’s approach to ensure it is implementing a regulatory regime which prioritises children’s safety and can grapple with the full scale of risk to children online. Ofcom must go further and use its full powers to demand bold and meaningful change from tech companies.”

Charities demanded the code include measures against features that keep children on apps for longer, such as auto-play on apps like Instagram and TikTok and a ban on Snapchat ‘streaks’.

The groups also called for stricter rules on live streaming, which carries a greater risk of child sex abuse.

They are also concerned about the age verification requirements set out by Ofcom. The social media companies will have to use new tools to identify those under 18, but there is no mandatory requirement to use tech to enforce the minimum age of 13, despite this being the law, because the technology for identifying young people was not reliable, the regulator has said.

Another area of concern for the groups is the failure to require online services to identify harmful content. Ofcom said it would soon publish more measures to tackle the problem.

The announcement comes as the King’s Speech sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the year. Amongst the legislation expected to be announced is an artificial intelligence (AI) bill, which, according to The Financial Times, will likely focus on improving the legal safeguards surrounding the most cutting-edge AI technologies.