The UK Online Safety Act requires relevant online services to assess potential risks to children on their platforms and implement suitable age restrictions to protect them from harmful content.
Websites with age restrictions must clearly state in their terms of service the methods used to prevent underage access and consistently enforce these measures. To verify users' ages online, various age assurance technologies are available. The Act mandates the use of "highly effective age assurance" technologies to ensure compliance.
“We will publish our Protection of Children Codes and children’s risk assessment guidance in April 2025. This means that services that are likely to be accessed by children will need to conduct a children’s risk assessment by July 2025 – that is, within three months. Following this, they will need to implement measures to protect children on their services, in line with our Protection of Children Codes to address the risks of harm identified. These measures may include introducing age checks to determine which of their users are under-18 and protect them from harmful content.”
To protect children, platforms must:
-
Remove illegal content quickly or prevent it from appearing, including content promoting self-harm.
-
Prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content, such as:
-
Pornographic material.
-
Content that promotes, encourages, or provides instructions for suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders.
-
Content depicting or encouraging serious violence or bullying.
-
Enforce age limits and implement age-checking measures on platforms where harmful content is published.
-
Increase transparency about the risks and dangers posed to children by:
-
Publishing risk assessments.
-
Provide clear and accessible reporting tools for parents and children to report online issues effectively.
Source: House of Commons Library, UK Parliament
Safeguarding Children and Young People Online: Managing Cybertrauma and Online Risks and Abuse
Wednesday 30th April 2024 - Virtual CPD Conference
HCUK and the Centre for Safeguarding and Wellbeing Research and Practice have brought two of the country’s leading experts in cybertrauma, online harm and safeguarding (Dr Peter Buzzi and Claudia Megele) to host this conference, and they’ll be joined by Safeguarding Leaders from Health, Social Care, and Policing to offer you the findings from national research and developments including research on sexual abuse by the Police Foundation and an innovative approach to safeguarding children and young people online.
Book your place: www.healthcareconferencesuk.co.uk/virtual-online-courses/safeguarding-children-young-people-online
