Key Facts

• Christina Rees calls for the Minister to move a motion about the publication of written evidence.
• Copies of written evidence will be circulated via email and made available in the Committee room each day.
• The Committee is scheduled to meet on specific days between May 24th and June 30th, with detailed timings for oral evidence sessions.
• The Online Safety Bill aims to regulate online safety by setting out priorities for high-risk services.
• There are concerns about the categorisation process and its impact on regulatory effectiveness during platform growth.
• The video-sharing platform regime provides some precedent, though it has limitations in scope.
• The witnesses engage closely with DCMS over concerns regarding clarity and flexibility in the Bill.
• Four new offences are included in the Bill, which may lead to individuals seeking redress and support.
• Ofcom is responsible for ensuring a robust complaints process from platforms and an appeals process.
• Christina Rees is managing the discussion of the Online Safety Bill.
• Kirsty Blackman, Kim Leadbeater, and Dean Russell have indicated they wish to ask questions.
• The Online Safety Bill is expected to regulate gaming services and their messaging functionalities.
• The Bill includes tools for introducing new priority harms or offences, requiring Parliamentary approval.
• Ofcom will produce codes of practice on CSEA, terrorism, fraudulent advertising, among others.
• A roadmap document outlining how codes will be developed will be published before the summer break.
• The Children’s Commissioner conducted a survey of 2,000 children where 50% had seen harmful content in the past month.
• 40% of those surveyed attempted to remove content about themselves but were unsuccessful.
• There is a call for statutory user advocacy arrangements to bolster regulatory responses and identify new harms early.
• Dame Rachel de Souza surveyed more than half a million children and found that they are seeing pornography on social media sites like Twitter.
• The Children's Commissioner argues for the need to challenge social media companies to remove pornography from their sites and implement age assurance measures.
• There is concern that clause 26 of the Bill may exclude problematic services like OnlyFans from its scope.
• The NSPCC has its Childline service for children.
• Children's Commissioner advocates direct access to advocacy services for children.
• Hundreds of thousands of children have expressed concerns about lack of strong advocacy support.
• Gaming and voice chat communications are discussed as areas needing regulation due to potential grooming risks.
• Platforms should be incentivised to deliver safety by design initiatives, including settings that limit interactions to friends lists.
• Breadcrumbing includes techniques used by abusers to facilitate the discovery and dissemination of child sexual abuse material online.
• Tribute sites received 6 million interactions in the first quarter of the previous year.
• Facebook groups focused on children celebrating certain birthdays are flagged as a concern due to their potential for facilitating illegal activity.
• The Secretary of State for Education has asked Dame Rachel de Souza to review how online harms and digital literacy are taught in schools.
• A pamphlet produced by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner has had a massive number of downloads.
• Age assurance technology is crucial for preventing children from accessing harmful content.
• Companies have been challenged on their use of age assurance, with artificial intelligence being used to know the age of users online.
• Ben Bradley is a public policy manager at TikTok leading on the Online Safety Bill.
• Katy Minshall is head of UK public policy for Twitter.
• The meeting has until 11:25 to discuss the scope and implications of the Online Safety Bill.
• User verification requirements mean all category 1 platforms must offer users the opportunity to verify themselves.
• The definition of content of democratic importance could cover huge swathes of conversation on Twitter, including links to blog posts and citizen journalists posting.
• Most of the abusive content detected by Twitter is removed using algorithms.
• TikTok views itself as an entertainment platform regulated by Ofcom under the VSP regime.
• Twitter follows industry standards for age self-declaration.
• Both companies are concerned about the workability and flexibility of the Bill's user empowerment duties.
• TikTok implements a neutral age gate for users under 13 years old.
• Twitter and TikTok aim to diversify content recommendations rather than creating filter bubbles.
• Twitter's algorithm down-ranks harmful content and automatically hides replies that may violate rules.
• The trust and safety council at Twitter represents different communities and viewpoints on online harms issues.
• The Online Safety Bill includes duties to protect freedom of expression but concerns exist about the breadth of the definition for journalistic content.
• Katy Minshall from Twitter states that until detailed guidance and codes are provided by Ofcom, it is difficult to specify changes her company will implement as a result of the bill.
• Ben Bradley mentions that 20,000 companies could be impacted by the new regulatory regime established under the Online Safety Bill.
• Christina Rees is chairing the Public Bill Committee on the Online Safety Bill.
• The morning session concludes and the committee will reconvene at 2 pm that day.