UK Government publishes practical online safety guidance for businesses

UK (AND OTHERS) – ONLINE PROTECTION AND EDUCATION

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport issued two sets of guidance: (i) “Online safety guidance if you own or manage an online platform”; and (ii) “A business guide for protecting children on your online platform.” in order to support organisations with meeting their obligations regarding preventing online harms.

Key date(s)

• 13 May 2021 – UK Government publishes draft text of the Online Safety Bill (“OSB”).
• 29 June 2021 - UK Government publishes two sets of practical guidance aimed to help online businesses protect children and other users.

Status

• On 29 June 2021, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (“DCMS”) issued the publication of two sets of guidance: (i) “Online safety guidance if you own or manage an online platform”; and (ii) “A business guide for protecting children on your online platform” (collectively, the “Guidance”).
• The Guidance is intended to be distinct and separate from the regulatory requirements that will be contained within the OSB, although it does contain practical guidance intended to help online businesses in the creation of safe digital platforms as well as assist in their navigation of the forthcoming legislation.

 What it hopes to achieve 

• The overarching aims of the Guidance are to implement online safety measures to keep UK users safer online (particularly children and vulnerable users), whilst supporting innovation and the digital economy.
  
  Online safety guidance if you own or manage an online platform

This collection of guidance includes:

1. discussion regarding what online harms are, including who is responsible for tackling online harms on a platform and how to manage and report them;
2. the responsibilities for the owner or manager of an online platform including understanding future online safety legislation and how online harms will be regulated;
3. a safer platform checklist containing 7 steps to prevent online harms and improve platform safety; and
4. a number of best practice design guidance (general and feature specific guidance) for designing safer online platforms.

   A business guide for protecting children on your online platform

This guidance contains information for businesses that provide online services likely to be accessed by children in order to to help them understand their obligations regarding:

1. data protection and privacy laws;
2. Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code);
3. positive user interactions; and
4. protecting children from online sexual exploitation and abuse.

Who does it impact? 

• The Guidance is intended to help online businesses improve the safety of their platforms in order to protect users.
• The UK Government stated in its press release that it expects most users of the Guidance to be smaller companies such as start-ups who are more likely to benefit from the issuance of such Guidance. The UK Government carried out research which showed smaller businesses to be “less confident in their ability to find information on child online safety compared to medium and large companies” and the safety by design guidance is hoped to help start-ups create safe online spaces from platform development stages through to user experience stages.

Key points 

1. Safety platform checklist

• • In order to prevent online harms occuring in the first instance, the Guidance includes a safety platform checklist containing 7 practical steps to improve the safety of online platforms. These are:

1. 1. 1. Review platform design for harms;
      2. Identify and protect users who may be vulnerable;
      3. Assess how users make reports or complaints;
      4. Review and test safety measures;
      5. Keep up to date with information about designing safer online platforms;
      6. Appoint a responsible person; and
      7. Train employees.

2. Takeaway points in child safety guidance

• • The Guidance provides information in relation to how online businesses can establish a safe environment for children which includes:
    • providing an age-appropriate experience (by using tools such as age assurance, age verification methods and, if subject, complying with the Age Appropriate Design Code);
    • complying with data protection obligations by familiarising themselves with those under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Data Protection Act 2018;
    • creating and enforcing rules and processes in relation to the prevention and detection of online abuse; and
    • in the case of social media platforms, adhering to the 4 principles of the UK Government’s voluntary Social Media Code of Practice.

3. Link to growth in UK tech safety sector

• • The DCMS also uses the Guidance to highlight growth in the UK’s safety tech sector. The UK Government’s press release points to recently published research which shows that the UK’s safety tech sector expanded by 43 per cent last year, created 500 new jobs and saw revenues of £314 million. The UK Government further advocates using such technologies developed by this industry in the fight against online harms.

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