Ofcom has published a discussion paper on the effectiveness of various techniques which could be employed by social media platforms to draw users’ attention to their terms and conditions.

The research was conducted as part of Ofcom’s Media Literacy duty and comes at a time when not only are the efficacy and enforcement of social media companies’ community guidelines under scrutiny, but also more generally there is a growing recognition that many online users fail to read the terms and conditions to which they agree.

The paper examines the effectiveness of methods designed to encourage users to ‘engage with terms and conditions’ and the effect of such methods on (1) users’ comprehension of the T&Cs, (2) the motivation of users to comply with them, and (3) the enforcement of the rules by the online platform. In particular, it tested the effect of reading Community Guidelines on users reporting and reposting content that violates the T&Cs.

Three methods of intervention were examined. First was the use of a ‘reframing message’ that included a link to the Community Guidelines and was presented on the sign-up page alongside a ‘motivational message’ highlighting their importance. Second was ‘relabelling’ whereby the Community Guidelines were changed to a more ‘user-friendly’ title (such as Dos and Don’ts). Third, prompts were shown whilst users were scrolling on the platform and had been exposed to some content.

Ultimately, the study found that prompts were the only effective way to encourage users to click to read the Community Guidelines. However, whether users will then comprehend and adhere to the rules is another matter. The study found that none of the interventions influenced users reporting or reposting content that violated the Community Guidelines and that prompts increased recall of the existence of rules, but not comprehension of them. As Ofcom put it “although prompts can remind users of the existence of rules, further strategies may be necessary to ensure a deeper understanding and adherence of platform rules and guidelines”.

The paper also highlights Ofcom’s research that “between half and two-thirds of users sign up to online platforms without trying to access or read T&Cs”, and even for those that do read them, many fail to understand them. Indeed, Ofcom found that Terms of Service documents of popular video sharing platforms can take “anywhere from eight minutes to over and hour to read, with most requiring advance reading skills”. It is a problem that has recently been raised by the judiciary, most notably in a case before the Court of Appeal (on which we commented here) in which Lady Justice Andrews mentioned by way of a ‘postscript’ that “the issues in this case have highlighted the complexity of balancing the needs of consumers to publicise their terms and conditions with the needs of consumers to access and understand those terms. Given that a decade has passed since the last report of the Law Commission the time might be ripe for another, evidence based, review of this area of law”.

To read the discussion paper, click here.