LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s communications regulator stated tech firms should give attention to defending youngsters from abuse, grooming and pro-suicide content material, in its first steps because the enforcer of on-line security.
Ofcom, which gained new powers when the On-line Security Act got here into regulation final month, stated youngsters had been a key precedence.
It stated its position can be to pressure companies, equivalent to Fb and Instagram proprietor Meta, to deal with the causes of on-line hurt by making their providers safer.
It won’t, nevertheless, make choices about particular person movies, posts, messages or accounts, or reply to particular person complaints.
Chief Government Melanie Dawes stated Ofcom was losing no time in setting out the way it anticipated tech companies to guard individuals from unlawful hurt on-line.
“Kids have advised us concerning the risks they face, and we’re decided to create a safer life on-line for younger individuals specifically,” she stated.
Its draft code revealed on Thursday included measures equivalent to stopping customers who will not be in a baby’s connection record from messaging them and never making youngsters’s location data seen.
It stated companies must also use a expertise known as “hash matching” to determine unlawful pictures of kid sexual abuse by checking them in opposition to a database.
It stated it could seek the advice of on its measures, which additionally embody motion to struggle fraud and terrorism, earlier than publishing a ultimate model subsequent 12 months, which shall be topic to parliamentary approval.
If firms don’t adjust to the brand new regulation, they may very well be fined as much as 18 million kilos ($22.1 million) or 10% of their annual world turnover.
($1 = 0.8156 kilos)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Modifying by Mark Potter)
