Preparedness for online safety regulation: PAC quizzes Govt officials
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) holds an evidence session on preparedness for online safety regulation at 9.15am on Wednesday 6 December 2023.
Meeting details
The session will hear from senior officials at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) including its Permanent Secretary, as well as senior Ofcom officials including its Chief Executive, on the extent of preparedness to implement the Online Safety Act.
The National Audit Office reported that the Act, which received Royal Assent in October, will see Ofcom regulating a very large number of services, the great majority of which have not been regulated before and are unfamiliar with Ofcom and how it works, and which have no UK corporate or economic presence.
The Act establishes a new regulatory regime for online safety, with the aim to make the UK the safest place in the world to go online. In 2022, 68% of UK child internet users (aged 13-17), and 62% of adult users (aged 18+), indicated they had experienced at least one potential online harm in the last four weeks.
The Act introduces new duties on search engines, firms which host user-generated content, and providers of pornographic content, to minimise the extent of illegal content and content that is harmful to children experienced by their users.