GPD inputs to Ofcom’s call for evidence on protecting children from legal content that is harmful to them

GPD has responded to the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom)’s call for evidence: second phase of online safety regulation.

We welcome the opportunity to provide comments to Ofcom on the implementation of their responsibilities as regulator under the UK’s Online Safety Bill, with this call for submissions focusing on matters that will be included in their second consultation for protecting children from legal content that is harmful to them. This will include draft guidance for services around children’s access and children’s risk assessments and draft codes of practice on child safety duties.

While we remain concerned about the nature and scope of child safety duties within the Online Safety Bill—and over the potential for criminal penalties to be introduced for senior social media managers who do not comply with these duties—we commend Ofcom for seeking multistakeholder input on its implementation of its duties in relation to protecting children from legal content that is harmful to them. We focus our responses on questions with the most salient implications for human rights and children’s rights, building on our previous submission to Ofcom’s call for evidence on the first phase of online safety regulation.

If the Online Safety Bill is eventually passed, we hope our responses assist Ofcom to carry out its functions in a rights-respecting manner.