The UK Government has revealed plans to give Ofcom new powers to force tech companies to act against online child abuse material. 

The powers will form part of the Online Safety Bill. Expected to pass in early 2023 at the latest, the bill aims to tackle online abuses, such as racism, hate crimes, homophobia, and child abuse materials. 

Under the new powers, Ofcom will be able to fine offending companies up to £18m or 10% of their global annual turnover, whichever is higher. 

However, Ofcom has noted that the Online Safety Bill will not give it the powers to moderate or censor content. 

Ofcom has warned tech firms that they need to start preparing for the new rules now. According to the body, its new powers will come into force two months after the Online Safety Bill is passed. 

Under Ofcom’s timeline, within the first 100 days of its news powers, Ofcom will draft a Code of Practice on illegal content harms, explaining how services can comply with their duties to tackle them. 

It will also create draft guidance on how it expects services to assess the risk of individuals coming across illegal content on their services and associated harms. 

In addition, it will publish a sector-wide risk assessment to help companies identify and understand the risks their users may face. This will include risk profiles for different kinds of services that fall in scope of the regime.  

Companies that Ofcom identifies as running high-risk services must be ready to explain their existing safety systems and how they plan to develop them by the time the powers come into force in early 2023. 

Should it consider that the platform is not taking appropriate steps to protect users from significant harm, it will be able to use a range of investigation and enforcement powers. 

However, these will be contingent on secondary legislation defining what constitutes harmful content. As such, Ofcom’s duties, and the timeframe for it performing these, will depend on when the secondary laws come into force. 

After a public consultation, Ofcom expect to finalise these documents in spring 2024. 

Three months after that, companies must have completed their risk assessments related to illegal content, and be ready to comply with their duties in this area from mid-2024 once the Code of Practice has been laid in Parliament. 

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Mark Bunting, Ofcom’s Online Safety Policy Director, said: “We’ll move quickly once the Bill passes to put these ground-breaking laws into practice. Tech firms must be ready to meet our deadlines and comply with their new duties. That work should start now, and companies needn’t wait for the new laws to make their sites and apps safer for users.” 

The Online Safety Bill has undergone several changes since it was announced over a year ago, with many additional powers added to it. Its remit was updated to include revenge porn, hate crime, fraud, the sale of illegal drugs or weapons, the promotion or facilitation of suicide, people smuggling and sexual exploitation to the list of prohibited activity. 

Regulators will also receive greater powers to tackle harmful, offensive, and misleading adverts. 

In addition, executives at tech companies that breach the rules to go to prison under the rules. 

Calls have come for the Bill to also cover paid-for scams and fraudulent advertising, cyberflashing, content promoting self-harm and the deliberate sending of flashing images to people with photosensitive epilepsy. 

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