Note: This article first appeared in the June 2024 issue of PLC Magazine.
In a feature PLC Magazine (Thomson Reuters) article, Wilson Sonsini’s Cédric Burton, Tom Evans, and Hattie Watson discuss Ofcom’s recent launch of its second major consultation as regulator under the Online Safety Act 2023 (2023 Act) (the consultation). Titled “Protecting children from harms online,” the consultation sets out Ofcom’s proposals for how organisations providing online services should comply with their wide-ranging duties under the 2023 Act to assess and mitigate the risk of harm users under the age of 18 in the UK.
Ofcom has a vital role in bringing the 2023 Act into force. Once it publishes its guidance and codes of practice in their final forms, the duties in the 2023 Act will come into force and organisations within scope will need to take steps to comply. Ofcom estimates that more than 100,000 online services, ranging from micro businesses to very large online platforms, will fall within the scope of these obligations and that most of these services will be required to take specific steps to safeguard children online.
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