Ofcom: Protecting children from harm consultation

8 May 2024 10:14 AM

Today, Ofcom has published its call for evidence focussed on protecting children from harm. The consultation is the second of this phase of the process, following on from one earlier this year on guidance for service providers publishing pornographic content. The second phase of the regulator’s approach to implementation focuses on child safety, pornography and the protection of women and girls.  

This consultation will run until 17th July, with the full regime – including additional details on categorised services – expected to come into effect from the end of 2025. You can find the consultation here,

Under the Online Safety Act, services must prevent children from encountering the most harmful content relating to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, and pornography. Services must also minimise children’s exposure to other serious harms, including violent, hateful or abusive material, bullying content, and content promoting dangerous challenges. 

To protect children, online services must follow a three-step approach to safety, including through: 

Phase 1 

• Assess whether children are likely to access their service – or part of it – through completing children’s access assessments. This will be broken down into two stages: 

  • Stage 1: Whether it is possible for children to access their service or part of it, and if so then… 

  • Stage 2: Whether there are significant numbers of children using the service or the service is likely to attract a significant number of children, known as the ‘child user condition’. 

Phase 2 

• Complete a children’s risk assessment to identify risks their services pose to children – through completing a children’s risk assessment. For this, Ofcom recommends a four-step methodology for this risk assessment: 

  • Understand the content that could be harmful to children. 

  • Assess the risk of harm. 

  • Implement safety measures and record outcomes. 

  • Report, review and update their children’s risk assessment. 

Phase 3 

• Take and implement safety measures to mitigate the risk to children, with more than 40 proposed safety measures in the Children’s Safety Codes drafts, including through: 

  • Robust governance and accountability 

  • Safer platform design choices 

  • Providing children with information, tools and support 

Further detail, and specific proposals on how services can implement each phase has been provided in Ofcom’s draft guidance. In practice, the call for evidence suggests that the appropriateness of each proposed measure should be considered alongside the below different factors: 

• The type of service. 

• The outcome of the service’s latest risk assessment. 

• Relevant functionalities and other characteristics. 

• The size of a service in terms of its UK user base. 

In total, the consultation is split into five volumes which provides further details and analysis on Ofcom’s reasoning, as well as the draft codes and guidance.  

Volume 1: Overview, scope and regulatory approach 
Volume 2: Identifying the services children are using 
Volume 3: The causes and impacts of harm to children 
Volume 4: Assessing the risks of harms to children online 
Volume 5: What should services do to mitigate the risk of online harms to children? 

In response to the call for evidence, Alice Campbell, Head of Public Affairs, techUK has issued the below statement: 

“We welcome this consultation which is an important step forward in the implementation of the Online Safety Act.  

“Many in-scope companies have already started to put additional child safety measures in place in anticipation of the Online Safety Act coming into force. However, today’s consultation provides important additional detail that in-scope services will need to engage with.  

“We look forward to continuing to work alongside members, Ofcom and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to ensure a robust and effective online safety regime.”