Morning, Tuesday, 14th January 2025
Online
This conference will examine next steps for child online safety regulation, policy and practice in the UK.
Key stakeholders and policymakers will examine issues raised during Ofcom’s consultation on Protecting Children from Harms Online as part of its implementation roadmap for the Online Safety Act.
We expect discussion on the direction of government policy following the commitment from the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to strengthen the Act in response to disorder following the Southport tragedy.
Delegates will assess the roles and responsibilities of internet service providers and social media companies in tackling online harms and misinformation. Areas for discussion include risk assessment, liability, options for sanctions, and the relationship between offline and online spaces. Specific concerns such as screen time-extending features, recommender systems, and the impact of body-image and depressive content will also be considered, alongside the role of education providers and new approaches to improving child media and safety literacy.
The agenda looks at latest developments in addressing practicalities of implementing age verification requirements, as well as identifying and classifying content, and issues around attention-retaining features that may negatively impact children. Sessions will assess next steps for safeguarding against harmful content, the future regulation and responsibilities relating to livestreaming sites, and challenges around moderating livestreams and homepage feeds.
Considerations around the balance between freedom of expression and online safety will be discussed, particularly in the context of identifying, classifying and moderating journalistic content. Attendees will also discuss privacy considerations and the provision of information for age verification purposes, and to emergency services and through the legal system.
The potential positive contribution and potential threats emanating from emerging technologies such as AI on online safety will be explored, assessing the adequacy of current legislation in regulating AI’s effects on internet safety. We also expect discussion on next steps for innovation to support child protection and the development of automated detection and areas for further research, following Ofcom’s Evaluation in Online Safety: A Discussion of Hate Speech Classification and Safety Measures, published in March 2024.
Further sessions will focus on international cooperation and enhancing collaboration to protect children online, with recent commitments to international regulatory consistency, looking at opportunities for sharing expertise, and exploring next steps for international private-public collaboration.
We are pleased to be able to include keynote sessions with: Prabhat Agarwal, Head, Digital Services and Platforms Unit, European Commission; and Prof Sonia Livingstone, Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Overall, areas for discussion include:
- policy and regulation: Ofcom’s consultation and next steps - options for strengthening the Online Safety Act - addressing key stakeholder concerns
- responsibilities: roles of social media platforms, content providers and ISPs in tackling online harms and misinformation - risk assessment and liability - practicalities and challenges for sector stakeholders
- regulatory balance: challenges in moderating journalistic content - considerations for freedom of speech - ensuring child protection
- specific issues: impacts of screen time-extending features - recommender systems - body-image and depressive content - mitigation strategies
- child media literacy: new educational approaches - roles of industry, families, schools and policymakers
- AI and emerging technologies: opportunities and threats in online safety - adequacy of current legislation - innovations in automated detection
- implementation: best practice and practical steps for stakeholder joint-working - addressing technology-amplified threats - moderating livestreams and feeds
- privacy and data sharing: considerations in providing information to authorities - balancing privacy with safety - legal and ethical implications
- international cooperation: building key global relationship - opportunities for UK leadership - regulatory consistency - private-public partnerships
All delegates will be able to contribute to the output of the conference, which will be shared with parliamentary, ministerial, departmental and regulatory offices, and more widely. This includes the full proceedings and additional articles submitted by delegates. As well as key stakeholders, those due to attend include officials from DfE; DSIT; Ofcom; and the Welsh Government.
