Ofcom to ‘shine light’ on sites not doing enough to protect women and girls

Tech platforms who are not doing enough to protect women and girls online will have their inaction highlighted so the public can make a choice about whether or not to use them, Ofcom has said.

The online safety regulator said that as well as enforcing new legally binding rules around protecting users from harm under the Online Safety Act, it will also “shine a light” on those failing to be proactive in making their sites safer and easier to use.

The warning comes as Ofcom has published new guidance on measures tech firms should consider using to help better protect women and girls on their sites, who they say are disproportionately impacted by online harms.

The guidance joins already published legally binding codes of practice on illegal content and protecting children online that have already been put in place by Ofcom and will begin to take effect next month under the Online Safety Act, and which carry large financial penalties if found to have been breached.

The additional guidance sets out a range of proposals which tech firms are also being encouraged to put in place, including the better use of technology to prevent intimate image abuse and asks sites to consider introducing tools which would help spot and fix ways sites can be exploited by abusers.

Ofcom’s Jessica Smith, who led the development of the guidance, said the regulator was also prepared to use its powers under the Online Safety Act to highlight platforms not doing enough to protect women and girls on their sites through new online safety transparency reports.

“Effectively, what we are going to do is use our information-gathering and transparency powers,” she told the PA news agency.

“So one of the things we’re committing to do is, once the guidance is finalised and a sufficient period of time has passed, is we’ll publish a transparency report that shines a light on what platforms are doing and not doing to keep their users safe.

“It’s about putting information out there, so users can be informed and make a choice about where they spend their time online.”

She added: “What we’re saying to platforms today is that you have a commercial choice.

“We know that women spend longer online than men, for example, on a daily basis, and so we think it makes good commercial sense to take their safety seriously.

“For some platforms, they may not choose to do that, and that is their decision. But as I said, then we will make sure people know what kind of space they are entering into when they go on that kind of platform.”

Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said the new guidance was a “call to action for online services”.

“There’s not only a moral imperative for tech firms to protect the interests of female users, but it also makes sound commercial sense – fostering greater trust and engagement with a significant proportion of their customer base,” she said.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms will be legally required to follow a new set of duties around protecting users from harm online, with fines of up to 10% of global turnover for those who fail to do so – which could run into billions of pounds for the largest services.

New regulation of the online world has been broadly welcomed, but some charities and campaigners have warned that the current plans have taken too long to implement, and do not go far enough to protect users from harm.

In response, Ms Smith said: “We’re at the fairly early days when it comes to implementation of the Act.

“I think we’re still at the stage of testing and implementing the powers that we have now, and I know that this has taken a while, so I really understand people’s frustration.

“I think when it comes to this particular guidance, we are balancing quite difficult issues. There are issues around free expression.”

Ofcom has now opened a consultation period on the guidance, and Ms Smith said it was vital the regulator also heard from men and boys on the issues raised.

“Obviously, this guidance is focused on women and girls, and we’ve spoken to a lot of survivors and women’s advocacy organisations as part of the process, but it’s also for men and boys – these tools can be for everybody,” she said.

“We know boys are more exposed to online misogyny than girls are, so we think that this will have broader benefits and we’re keen to speak to men and boys as part of our consultation process.”