Social media faces big changes under new Ofcom rules

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 BBC Radio 5 Live.

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.

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

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.

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.

“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. ”