The UK’s media watchdog, Ofcom, has published a debut report on its first year regulating a selection of video-sharing platforms (VSPs) — including TikTok, Snapchat, Twitch, Vimeo and OnlyFans — following the introduction of content-handling rules aimed at protecting minors and others from viewing harmful user-generated video content online.
As well aiming to shrink the risk of minors being exposed to age-inappropriate content (an area the UK’s data protection watchdog also has under watch), the VSP regulation requires in-scope Internet platforms to take steps to protect all their users from content likely to incite violence or hatred against protected groups or which would be considered a criminal offence under laws related to terrorism, child sexual abuse material, racism and xenophobia.
It’s a taster of a broader (and more controversial) online content regulation that’s been years in the making — aka the Online Safety Bill — which remains in limbo after the new UK prime minister, and her freshly appointed minister heading up digital issues, paused the draft legislation last month saying they wanted to tweak the approach in response …
