Online Safety Bill: Social media faces big changes under new Ofcom rules

The Online Safety Act, which aims to make the internet safer for children, became law just under a year ago in October 2023

Getty Images A young person wearing jeans and a yellow t shirt uses a tablet with headphones on while sitting cross-legged on a bed with grey sheets on — The Online Safety Act, which aims to make the internet safer for children, became law just under a year ago in October 2023

Social media companies will face punishments for failing to keep children safe on their platforms, communications watchdog Ofcom has warned.

Services like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp could face fines from the regulator if they do not comply with the new Online Safety Act – which comes into force early next year – Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes, told the BBC.

Dame Melanie said it was the responsibility of the firms – not parents or children – to make sure people were safe online.

Companies will have three months from when the guidance is finalised to carry out risk assessments and make relevant changes to safeguard users.

Dame Melanie said changes could include allowing people to take themselves out of group chats, without anyone else being able to see they had left.

“Young people should be able to take themselves out of group chats that they know are toxic for them, without everybody being able to see and that’s one of the things that we are going to be expecting to see change from social media and messaging services,” she said.

Platforms will also need to show they are committed to removing illegal content including child sexual abuse, promotion of self-harm and animal cruelty.

Ofcom has been putting together codes of practice since the Online Safety Act became law just under a year ago, to protect children from some legal but harmful material.

Chief Executive of Ofcom Dame Melanie Dawes said firms have a responsibility to keep people safe online

Ofcom Chief Executive of Ofcom Dame Melanie Dawes smiles while looking at the camera and wearing a pink suit with a plant and a window out of focus in the background — Chief Executive of Ofcom Dame Melanie Dawes said firms have a responsibility to keep people safe online

“It’s definitely not just a paper exercise,” said Dame Melanie. “We are very clear that the first step that any responsible company needs to take, is to actually assess risks that they’ve never assessed before.”

She added that companies needed to be “honest and transparent” about what their “services are actually exposing their users to”.

“If we don’t think they’ve done that job well enough, we can take enforcement action, simply against that failure.”

Ofcom has already been in close contact with social networking services and Dame Melanie said when the new legal safeguards became enforceable the regulator would be “ready to go”.

She added: “We know that some of them are preparing but we are expecting very significant changes. ”