The internet has become part and parcel of daily life during the 21st century, effectively ensuring that most elements of society are 'digital first.' However, it has also presented numerous challenges, most notably relating to inappropriate content, risk of fraud, hacking, and sharing of misinformation.
Online Safety Act
The UK government makes numerous efforts to regulate online safety, and it recently introduced a new Act which aims to make the internet a safer place. It received Royal Assent on October 26. The Online Safety Act (OSA) introduces a wide range of measures designed to regulate two key elements of the Internet—user-to-user services and search services.
The user-to-user services category covers numerous parts of the internet, including video-sharing sites, social media platforms, online gambling sites, and online gaming platforms. Search services refer to any portion of the internet that contains a search engine—in simple terms, the functionality to search multiple websites or databases.
The Act only relates to services that have 'significant links with the UK' and where there are 'reasonable grounds to believe there is a material risk of significant harm to users from its content. While the Act is primarily designed to be internally focused, it has scope to deal with issues that may originally be triggered in jurisdictions overseas.
Ofcom
The Office of Communications (Ofcom) estimates that more than 100,000 organizations are 'in-scope' of the Act when factoring in providers in the UK and overseas. The Act imposes a vast array of general duties on in-scope services to ensure that its terms are adhered to at all times.
These include illegal content risk assessments, safety duties concerning illegal content, and easily accessible content reporting and complaints procedures. 'Category 1 services' will have the greatest expectations placed upon them, although it is yet to be determined exactly which organizations this refers to. The leading social media platforms will likely fall under this umbrella, while any service that is likely to be accessed by children will also be covered.
Compliance Processes
The introduction of effective age verification processes will form a key part of how services comply with the Act, thus making the Internet a safer place for users. Ofcom is the appointed regulator of the Act and can impose massive financial penalties on services that fail to adhere to its terms. This could be up to £18 million or 10% of global annual revenue.
Access restriction orders and service restriction orders will be used to shut down non-compliant services, while personal criminal liability for officers of organizations is also in play. While there will be consultation periods put in place to give services time to make themselves complaints, Ofcom has set a one-year timescale for everyone to get up to speed.
Collaboration with numerous other regulatory organizations will be crucial to Ofcom's attempts to ensure the Act makes the Internet safer. Through formal licensing measures, age controls, cybersecurity auditing, takedown procedures, and other processes, the Act will seek to reduce the risk of harm on the internet.
Online Safety & Sport
One of the most high-profile issues Ofcom will attempt to tackle is online safety in sports, particularly with regard to social media platforms. The newly-branded X—formerly known as Twitter—has developed a reputation for being an unregulated cesspit of toxicity since the platform was acquired by entrepreneur Elon Musk.
To address the situation, West Ham United vice-chair Karren Brady was engaged by the UK government to assist with the creation of the online safety bill earlier this year. Brady was brought into the project to share her expertise after Tottenham Hotspur forward Heung-min Son was racially abused online following a game against West Ham.
The incident was the latest in a long line of disgraceful acts perpetrated by individuals hiding behind a keyboard who had no fear of being punished for their actions. The 2020 European Championship was one of the main triggers for the UK government to take action, with three England players racially abused after the team's exit from the tournament.
A subsequent study discovered that around 60,000 abusive messages were sent to Premier League players in the first half of the 2021/22 season, highlighting the scale of the problem.
Conclusion
The introduction of the Act effectively forces services to take appropriate action to eradicate abuse from their platforms, although achieving this will not be easy. The sheer scale of the internet may make it difficult for Ofcom to effectively police every issue, which some critics argue makes the Act unfit for purpose. However, if the Online Safety Act serves to clean up even some of the most unsavory elements of the internet, its introduction will undoubtedly have been a positive move.
