Deloitte Internet Regulation Updater

On 10 January 2023, the UK regulator for online safety, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) announced a call for evidence on protecting children. This forms part of its second consultation phase in respect of the Online Safety Bill (OSB). The first consultation phase focused on the OSB’s proposed duties in relation to illegal content and was published alongside Ofcom’s overall ‘roadmap’ in July 2022.

Ofcom expects to publish its second consultation in Autumn 2023 and to include draft guidance to assist in-scope service providers in complying with their children’s access assessment duties once the OSB becomes law. As part of this consultation Ofcom is calling for interested stakeholders to provide their evidence focusing on how services:

• should conduct a children’s access assessment
• which are likely to be accessed by children, are to undertake their children’s risk assessment
• hosting online pornographic content can comply with their duties to ensure that children cannot normally access that content
• can comply with their duties to protect children from harmful content

It is estimated that responses to the call for evidence will assist Ofcom in strengthening its understanding of the range of approaches and techniques service providers can adopt in ensuring compliance with the OSB in respect of protecting children, and future initiatives such as drafting relevant regulatory guidance and codes of practice. Ofcom’s call for evidence will remain open for 10 weeks and therefore responses will need to be sent by 21 March 2023.

If you would like to speak to the Deloitte team supporting clients on complying with fast-paced global internet regulation, please contact:

Joey Conway, Internet Regulation Partner, Legal Lead

Nick Seeber, Internet Regulation Lead Partner

Jessica Withey, Internet Regulation Director, Legal

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