AROfcom have announced a critical milestone in protecting young users from harmful content online. Ofcom’s newly published industry guidance, stemming from the Online Safety Act, provides an outlined roadmap for industry to ensure children are shielded from online pornography and other harmful material online.
Safeguarding Through Age Assurance
At the heart of Ofcom’s guidance is the implementation of more robust age assurance mechanisms. These measures aim to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content by requiring services to adopt accurate, reliable, and privacy-conscious age-checking methods. Age assurance will become a more defined standard that sites and apps must adhere to in order to meet their obligations under the Online Safety Act.
This guidance lays out specific requirements for services to:
- Assess their platforms for potential child access and implement measures to protect children where necessary.
- Introduce effective age checks to distinguish between adult and child users, particularly on platforms hosting pornographic or other harmful content.
- Ensure harmful material cannot be accessed or viewed during the age-checking process.
Methods such as facial age estimation, open banking, photo ID matching, and credit card verification have been identified as viable solutions for robust age assurance. Conversely, self-declaration of age is now deemed insufficient, reflecting the need for stricter and more reliable processes.
What This Means for Children
For many years, children have been exposed to harmful online content due to insufficient age checking safeguards. The requirement for all platforms to now complete a children’s access assessment will significantly work towards lowering the risk of exposure to harmful material.
We have always championed a proactive approach towards online safety, emphasising the need for industry to balance security with the rights and privacy of users. Ofcom’s guidance aligns with this vision by requiring platforms to protect children while maintaining access to legal content for adults.
A Call to Action for Industry
As of today, platforms have clear deadlines to comply with their obligations:
- By April 2025, platforms likely to be accessed by children must conduct risk assessments.
- By July 2025, all services hosting pornography must have age assurance fully operational.
Ofcom has launched an enforcement programme to monitor compliance and hold services accountable and those companies that fail to implement age checks or engage with their obligations risk facing penalties.
David Wright CBE (CEO of SWGfL) said ‘’Ofcom’s guidance represents a pivotal moment within the enforcement of the Online Safety Act. Online services have operated without robust enough age verification measures to protect children from harm online for many years and these new requirements will work towards a safer, stricter landscape. Although placing responsibility onto platforms, there is still a holistic approach that needs to be taken. Parents, carers and schools will still need to engage with young people to ensure these measures are respected and not worked around. Although stronger measures are now in place, it is not a fix all solution.
SWGfL stands ready to support the implementation of these measures, working alongside Ofcom, industry, and other stakeholders to effectively enforce these practices. We encourage industry to not only meet the minimum requirements but to exceed them, demonstrating leadership in their commitment in protecting their users. With this collaborative approach, we can ensure that children can explore the online world without encountering content that puts them at risk.’’
