The Government has promised that the new Act will make the UK the safest place in the world to be online and will place world-first legal duties on social media platforms.

The new Act received Royal Assent yesterday (on 26th October) and has now become law.

New laws have now been introduced to protect children and adults online. In its guidance, the Government explains that the new Act will:

Protect children by making social media platforms:

  • Remove illegal content quickly or prevent it from appearing in the first place. This includes removing content promoting self-harm.

  • Prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content

  • Enforce age limits and age-checking measures

  • Ensure the risks and dangers posed to children on the largest social media platforms are more transparent, including by publishing risk assessments

  • Provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online when they do arise

 

The new Act will also protect adults using a ‘Triple Shield’. Government guidance states that the Triple Shield will include:

  1. All in scope services will need to put in place measures to prevent their services being used for illegal activity and to remove illegal content when it does appear.

  2. Category 1 services (the largest and most-high risk services) must remove content that is banned by their own terms and conditions.

  3. Category 1 services must also empower their adult users with tools that give them greater control over the content that they see and who they engage with.

 

The below list is content that the Act will tackle:

  • Illegal content

  • Content that is harmful to children

  • Underage children will be kept off social media platforms

  • Adults will have more control over the content they see

  • The Act will tackle repeat offenders 

 

The Act is enforced by Ofcom who have been put in charge as a regulator to check platforms are protecting their users. After the new Act received Royal Assent yesterday, Ofcom immediately began tackling illegal content.

Ofcom will also be launching a consultation process on 9th November 2023.

If companies do not follow their new duties, Ofcom can take action against them. Action will include fines up to 18 million pounds or 10 percent of a company’s annual global turnover, whichever is greater.

For more information go to  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/a-guide-to-the-online-safety-bill

The contents of this post do not constitute legal advice and are provided for general information purposes only ■