What's the issue?

The government is bringing in legislation to tackle illegal and harmful online content. The Online Safety Bill will cover a wide range of harmful content and is complex to navigate, especially for startups and SMEs.

The OSB is not the only measure to tackle online harms.  Perhaps the most notable initiative to date is the ICO's Children's Code which came into force last September and will be enforceable form 2 September 2021.

The Children's Code sets out 15 standards which online services need to follow to ensure they comply with their obligations to protect children's data.  In fact, it goes wider than strict data protection and is also relevant to the broader initiatives under the OSB, some of which relate specifically to content which is harmful to children.

What's the development?

The DCMS has published online safety guidance for businesses.  The guidance is split into Safety by Design guidance and One Stop Shop guidance on child safety.

The Safety by Design guidance is intended to help businesses build safe products and age-appropriate experiences.  It covers issues including identifying and reporting harms and other responsibilities and also provides specific guidance for particular types of platform (eg live streaming) and platform features (eg user accounts).

The one stop shop child safety guidance is focused on children-specific measures including data protection, age-appropriate consent and protecting children from CSEA and terrorism content.  The guidance emphasises the importance of complying with the ICO's Children's Code which will be enforceable form 2 September.

What does this mean for you?

The guidance is aimed very much at startups and SMEs and doesn't really get into the complexities of the OSB.

It will be up to Ofcom to produce more in-depth guidance and Codes of Practice (although interim Codes on CSEA and Terrorism content have been published by the government).  The DCMS guidance is very much a high level starting point and businesses will be anxious for more detail to emerge.

One thing which is clear is the emphasis placed on compliance with the Children's Code.  This is something which businesses within scope should be getting to grips with ahead of the September deadline.

Find out more

You can find out more about the OSB by listening to our webinar and we'll be publishing a series of detailed articles on Download next month.

You can also find out more about the Children's Code in our webinar and related content on the Global Data Hub.

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