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Protecting children from harms online: Response to Ofcom consultation

Children using digital devices.

Lizzie Reeves from our Policy and Research team shares our submission to Ofcom’s consultation to protect children from online harms.

See the full response below.

About this submission

Internet Matters supports the importance of online safety regulation. We welcome the speed with which Ofcom has assumed its duties to identify harms and establish its regulatory approach to protecting children. The scale of the challenge is significant. Alongside the draft Illegal Harms proposals, again we lend our support to Ofcom in its effort to establish a safer online world for children.

In particular, the draft Children’s Register of Risks (Volume 3) a strong piece of work. We will offer our own up-to-date evidence on the nature of the risks/harms that children experience, including differences by age, gender, vulnerability and other characteristics.

However, we have a number of concerns about the scope and approach that Ofcom is taking through the draft Code of Practice.

Key points of this submission

  • Age assurance
  • ‘Highly effective’ age assurance
  • The role of parents
  • Communication of terms and conditions, reports and complaints
  • Child-on-child harm
  • Read across with the media literacy strategy.

Explore these points in the full submission below.

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