First look at the new Online Safety Bill
For anyone who is isn’t aware, there is a new Online Safety Bill going through parliament which imposes additional responsibilities on firms which host user-generated content, i.e. those which allow users to post their own content online or interact with each other, and for search engines, which will have tailored duties focused on minimising the presentation of harmful search results to users. Platforms likely to be accessed by children will need to: prevent access to material that is harmful for children. ensure there are strong protections from activity which is harmful to children, which the government expects will include harms such as bullying. One of the main aims of this new law is the focus on preventing children accessing harmful (but technically legal) content such as self harm and having much easier mechanisms for reporting content. Much of new law seems to leave the implementation specifics to the platforms themselves with regulator OFCOM likely to provide guidance on ho...