Tuesday 12 March 2024
Start times: 9:30am (private) 10:00am (public)
Ofcom and Schools Minister quizzed on Online Safety Act and ensuring children’s safe use of screens in education.
This is the final evidence session of the Committee’s inquiry into screen time and its impacts on children’s education and wellbeing.
The 2023 Online Safety Act puts the onus on tech companies to take responsibility for moderating ‘harmful yet legal’ content on their platforms in order to protect children. The Act made Ofcom the regulator for online safety. Ofcom will be overseeing requirements placed on providers including age-checking measures, duties to be transparent about risks their websites pose to children, and ways for parents and users to report harmful material. The Act also contains measures which will make it easier to convict those who share intimate images without consent, and new laws will further criminalise the non-consensual sharing of intimate deepfakes.
