"Simply put, content regulation, at its core, is about regulating interactions between people.  As a society our opinion of harm changes over time, and there will always be a spectrum of harm from the clearly illegal to the harmful but not illegal. Overlaying that is the fact that the harm felt will be different from individual to individual whether that is dependent on age or just simply personal opinion and taste. Different harms will need different solutions and flexibility is absolutely key."

techUK Tackling Online Harms paper: https://bit.ly/2YdBa2O

Baroness Beeban Kidron, Member, House of Lords and Chair, 5Rights Foundation, opens today's Westminster eForum Keynote Seminar, Next steps for online regulation - practicalities, responsibilities and collaboration, 19th March 2019, with the observation that, "People no longer dispute that we need rules of engagement in the digital world."

5Rights Foundation work specifically to recognise the rights of the child in the digital world.  In January 2019, they published Towards an Internet Safety Strategy.  The report suggests seven pillars on which they believe a safety strategy can successfully be built.

"It is for government to set standards and to ensure that there is a fully resourced regulator mandated to enforce them. It is for the tech sector and all those who offer digital services to meet these standards with creativity, alacrity and the recognition that children’s rights are non-negotiable, even when inconvenient.”

Source: Towards an Internet Safety, 5Rights Foundation (January 2019)

Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/2Hts6B1

Until now, technology companies have been engaging in self-regulation, but this has been problematic.  In a pre-recorded presentation, Julian King, European Commissioner for the Security Union, stated that, "Overall, progress has not been sufficient.  So we're calling out to them again to say, you need to go further and faster to meet those commitments that you signed up to in the code of practice." He warned that if this doesn't happen, the EU will consider regulation as a way forward.

"Overall, progress has not been sufficient.  So we're calling out to them again to say, you need to go further and faster to meet those commitments that you signed up to in the code of practice."

Julian King, European Commissioner for the Security Union

Dr Victoria Nash, Deputy Director and Policy and Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, believes that the process of regulation, "Should start by putting human rights at the front and centre of all new efforts to regulate the Internet for users."  She highlighted the need to focus not just on content, but on actions and behaviours, with users being empowered to protect themselves through their own actions and choices.  In her view, systems of accountability are needed that can hold both industry and government to account. 

Tony Stower, Head of Child Safety Online, NSPCC, noted that, of the 13 attempts to make the Internet safer for children since 2005, none have been successful.  The responsibility for keeping children safe online falls heavily on parents, who struggle to keep up.  In 2014, the NSPCC petitioned the Minister for Online Child Protection, calling for a new law that would make it illegal for an adult to send a child a sexual message.  This law was passed as part of the Serious Crime Act (2015).  Tony Stower revealed that the NSPCC have since discovered massive levels of child grooming online; 5,000 cases in the last two years.

Yih-Choung Teh, Group Director, Strategy and Research, Ofcom, emphasised that child safety is top of their list, and they will be looking to invest targeted research.  He stated that Ofcom's objective will be to provide a solid evidence base in the debate.  He went on to highlight the need to address the issue of unwanted experiences.  One in five children say they have been contacted by a stranger online.  He noted, "If this was the case in the physical world, parents would be extremely concerned."

Tony Stower further illustrated the need for robust regulation to protect children.  Groomers use sophisticated methods to entrap children, moving them from platform to platform to where there is the least protection.  He pointed out that statistics released by online platforms don't give any real information about how they're keeping children safe, and detailed information about how they moderate their sites is essential. 

The NSPCC are calling for intelligently designed principles-based regulation, which is safe by design.  They suggest that online platforms should have the ability to detect threats on their sites, and that accounts for children should be specifically designed for them with the highest privacy setting by default. 

Elaine Quinn, Director of Corporate Affairs, Nominet, suggested some key ingredients for the success of the much-anticipated Online Harms White Paper:

• A solid understanding of how the Internet works and what's possible
• Establish a clear baseline: "who's responsible for what"
• Increasing focus on legal but harmful content: who will have the authority to define what is unacceptable

She went on to say that, with an increasing number of children suffering from loneliness and anxiety, the challenge is how we help the next generation through this to support their mental health. As the experts involved in 5Rights Foundation Towards an Internet Safety Strategy conclude: 

"Above all else, it is for all stakeholders, government, tech, business and civil society to create a digital world in which children, the leaders, teachers, parents and workers of the future, can flourish. Because when we uphold the privileges, protections and inalienable rights of childhood we are investing in a positive future for society as a whole.”

Source: Towards an Internet Safety, 5Rights Foundation (January 2019)

Post Contributor:

Caitriona Fitzsimons Digital Reporter