The Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, has published a draft ‘Statement of Strategic Priorities’, setting out the Government’s areas of focus for online safety, to which Ofcom must have regard as it continues it work to implement the Online Safety Act.

Under the Act, the Secretary of State is empowered to set out a series of strategic priorities alongside “particular outcomes identified with a view to achieving the strategic priorities”. Before those priorities are fixed, there must first be a consultation period of at least 40 days, during which Ofcom and other people whom “the Secretary of State considers appropriate” will have the opportunity to respond to a draft. After this period is over, the Statement is finalised and cannot be amended within five years unless there is a general election or a “significant change in the policy of [the Government] affecting online safety matters”. Once published, Ofcom must “have regard to the statement when carrying out their online safety functions”.

The five strategic priorities are as follows:

1. Safety by Design

The Statement makes clear that it should not fall on users to take precautionary steps to keep themselves safe online. Instead, services are expected to adopt a ‘safety by design approach’ to “deliver safe online experiences for all users but especially children, tackle violence against women and girls, and work towards ensuring that there are no safe havens for illegal content and activity, including fraud, child sexual exploitation and abuse, and illegal disinformation”.

It goes on to explain that regulated providers are expected to “look at all areas of their services and business models, including algorithms and functionalities, when considering how to protect all users online. They should focus not only on managing risks but embedding safety outcomes throughout the design and development of new features and functionalities, and consider how to make existing features safer”.

Specific priorities for embedding safety by design are also set out in the Statement:

• Developing a strong evidence base to support children to have safe, age-appropriate experiences online;
• Ensuring companies are effectively deploying age assurance technology to protect children from harm online and investing in technological developments;
• Deploying effective and accessible additional protections for adult users, particularly vulnerable users; and
• Using risk and evidence-based approaches to work towards ensuring there are no safe havens online for illegal content and activity.

2. Transparency and accountability

A further priority of the Government is to “ensure industry transparency and accountability for delivering on online safety outcomes, driving increased trust in services and expanding the evidence-base to provide safer experiences for users”. The Statement explains that greater transparency makes it easier for users and Ofcom to hold services to account, as well as to identify both wrongdoing and best practice. The particular strategic priorities are as set out as follows:

• Improving transparency to increase understanding of the harms occurring on platforms, why they are occurring and the best way to tackle them;
• Ensuring that parents are treated with respect when requesting information from services following the death of a child, and, through Ofcom, coroners have access to data to understand how online activity may have contributed to the death of a child;
• Making sure that users are clear what is allowed on services through providers’ Terms of Service, and these are applied consistently; and
• Making platforms accountable to users and increasing the incentives on providers to keep their users safe and benefit wider society by fostering a greater level of trust, safety and transparency.

3. Agile Regulation

 The Government wants to see the development of “an agile approach to regulation, ensuring the framework is robust in monitoring and tackling emerging harms – such as AI generated content – and increases friction for technologies which enable online harm”. The Statement explains that the Act has been designed to be ‘broad and future-proofed’ and suggests that “Ofcom may find significant benefits in designing a forward-looking approach to regulation” that can respond to rapidly evolving technology and changes in behaviour.

The Government’s strategic priorities in relation to agile regulation are to ensure that:

• Changes in the use of technology that enable online harm are monitored, risk assessed and where appropriate mitigated against;
• Threats from AI generated content and activity are effectively mitigated;
• International cooperation should enable new ideas to tackle online safety to be shared, building a global consensus on online safety; and
• Small but risky services are regulated effectively.

4. Inclusivity and Resilience

A further priority of the Government is to create “an inclusive, informed and vibrant digital society resilient to potential harms, including disinformation”. This means Ofcom working with others to achieve the following:

• Users are aware of, and resilient to, mis- and disinformation;
• Best practice principles for literacy by design are widely adopted, providing users with the tools to navigate their online environment;
• Parents, carers and children understand risks and are supported to stay safe against online harm;
• Young people feel included in the policy making process shaping their digital experiences online; and
• Risks to trust in online information due to AI-generated content are effectively mitigated.

5. Technology and Innovation

 Finally, the draft statement sets out the Government’s priority to “foster the innovation of online safety technologies to improve the safety of users and drive growth”. This means the Government and Ofcom not only working with regulated companies themselves, but also with third parties to develop innovative solutions. In particular, the Government states that it wants to see that:

• Innovation in safety technology is encouraged to improve the experience of all users online;
• Ofcom drives the adoption of safety technologies by online services to improve experience and support compliance;
• The development of more effective age assurance technologies is supported.

The Government press release points out that the strategic priorities will be finalised “with the input of online safety experts and campaigners to ensure government action is informed by those with those who have experienced the offline impacts of failures in online safety”. Ofcom will then have to report back to the Secretary of State on what action it has taken against the priorities once it begins to enforce the first duties on online platforms under the Act next Spring.

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