Online Safety Hazards
This post, which we will keep up to date, summarises key amendments tabled to the Online Safety Bill 2021/22-285, 2022/23-004.
On 25 May 2022, Labour MPs on the Committee tabled an amendment (Amendment NC1) to include a requirement that the Secretary of State publish a report on the options for dealing with appeals against complaints relating to the obligations under clauses 18 and 28 to provide a complaints procedure.
On 26 May 2022, Labour MPs on the Committee tabled a series of amendments, including:
Amendments 10 & 12: a requirement on affected user-to-user services to not only conduct an illegal content risk assessment as required by clause 8, a children’s risk assessment required by clause 10, and the adults’ risk assessment required by clause 12, but also to publish those risk assessments and to provide copies to Ofcom;
Amendments 14 & 16: a requirement on affected organisations that the illegal content risk assessment required by clause 8 and the children’s risk assessment required by clause 10 be approved by the Board or a senior manager;
Amendments 19 & 20: a requirement on affected organisations that the illegal content risk assessment required by clause 8, and the illegal content safety duties imposed by clause 9, include cross-platform risk as part of the risk profile;
Amendment 17: extending the scope of the illegal content risk assessment required by clause 8 to material which is not itself illegal content but which reasonably foreseeably facilitates or aids the discovery or dissemination of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) content;
Amendments 18 & 21: to impose an obligation as part of the illegal content safety duties under clause 9 to minimise the presence of content which reasonably foreseeably facilitates or aids the discovery or dissemination of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) content and to collaborate with other platforms in relation to cross-platform risk;
Amendments 11, 13 & 15: a requirement on affected providers of search services likely to be used by children to have the children’s risk assessment required by clause 25 approved by the Board or a senior manager and to publish the assessment and provide a copy to Ofcom;
Amendment 22: to remove the child user condition from the scope of the children’s access assessment required in connection with Part 3 services under clause 31 with the consequence that any service or part of a service capable of being accessed by a child would fall within the scope of the obligations under clauses 10 and 11 or 25 and 26, as applicable.
Amendment 8: an additional obligation under clause 68 on providers of regulated provider pornographic content to verify the age of participants as being over 18 or otherwise to remove the content, to verify the consent of the participants to publication on the relevant service and to remove any content in respect of which a participant withdraws their consent, and to maintain written records relating to the compliance;
Amendment NC2: to impose additional obligations on services providing user-generated pornographic content to verify the consent of the participants to publication on the relevant service, and to remove any content in respect of which a participant withdraws their consent;
Amendment NC3: to establish (whether by appointing an existing entity or creating a new one) an advocacy body to represent the interests of current and future users of regulated services aged 17 and under and to designate that advocacy body as a statutory consultee.
Amendment NC4: an obligation on all providers of user-to-user services to notify Ofcom of any information which Ofcom would reasonably expect notice.
On 26 May 2022, the Government also tabled amendments including:
Amendment 7: To require Ofcom to consult the Information Commissioner as well as the Secretary of State and other persons it considers appropriate before producing guidance for providers of regulated services about the exercise of its functions as required by clause 12.
On 27 May 2022, Labour members of the Committee tabled further amendments including:
Amendment 23: To limit the application of the duties in relation to fraudulent advertising under clause 34 to those Category 1 services targeting users in the UK.
Amendment 24: To limit the application of the duties in relation to fraudulent advertising under clause 34 to those Category 2A services targeting users in the UK.
Amendment NC6: To introduce a requirement for operators of Category 2A services to implement a verification process to confirm that the advertiser is authorised by a UK regulatory body for designated adverts appearing in search results.