What’s new, and what’s next, for online safety?

The Online Safety Bill is a radical piece of legislation aimed at “making Britain the safest place in the world to be online”. It will do so through groundbreaking regulation of social media platforms and search engines. Its aims are laudable, to protect users (especially children) from online harms. But there is great concern over its potential impact on freedom of expression, media regulation and innovation. It also places a heavy regulatory burden on those caught within its ambit – and not just ‘big tech’!

Now the Joint Committee of MPs and Peers charged with reviewing the draft Bill has put forward a raft of wide-ranging recommendations. Many of these are likely to be taken forward. These are likely to include: placing a general duty of care on operators, bringing advertising within its scope for the first time, and giving Ofcom even stronger enforcement powers.

As this important new regime takes another big step forward, we are delighted to invite you to our event.

We will be joined by Lord Clement-Jones CBE, who was a member of this important Joint Committee. Lord Clement-Jones is the Liberal Democrat House of Lords spokesperson for Digital, and was Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which sat from 2017-18, and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI.

In this session, our experts Jo Farmer, Giles Crown and Geraint Lloyd-Taylor will be on hand to explore what this means for you and your business as the new regime takes shape, particularly from the perspective of advertisers, the media and online platforms.

We will be considering the Joint Committee’s sweeping recommendations, and the important issues the Joint Committee has not only raised but tried to solve.

If there are any questions you would like to put to our panel, please feel free to send them to us in advance of the session here.