Ofcom, British Internet Security Regulator, has announced another new draft guideline because it continues to implement the Internet Security Law (OSA)-the most recent set of recommendations aim to support companies in extract to fulfill legal obligations to protect women and girls from the internet threatening such as harassment and harassment, misogyll and intimate abuse of paintings.
The government said that the protection of women and girls was a priority for his implementation of OSA. Certain forms (predominantly) misogynistic abuse – such as sharing intimate images without consent or use of a tool to create deepfake pornography targeting individuals – are explicitly listed in the law as implementation priorities.
Internet security regulation, approved by British Parliament September 2023He faced criticism that he was not on the task of reform of the giants of the platform, although it contains significant penalties for disrespecting-to 10% of the global annual turnover.
The campaign for the safety of children also expressed frustration of how much time the law should be implemented, as well as to doubt whether it would have the desired effect.
In an interview with Bbc In January, even Minister of Technology Peter Kyle – who inherited legislation from the previous government – called him “very uneven” and “unsatisfactory”. But the government is held by approach. Part of the dissatisfaction with OSA can be monitored up to a long time ministers allowed to implement the regime, which has been requested to approve the Parliament of the ofcom’s compliance guidelines.
However, the implementation is expected to start starting soon in relation to the basic requirements for resolving illegal content and protection of children. Other aspects of the OSA compliance will last longer. And ofcom admits that this latest package of practice recommendations will not become fully executive by 2027 or later.
Approaching the implementation line
“The first duties of the Internet Security Act will enter into force next month,” she told Techcrunch in an interview with ofcom’s Jessica Smith, who led the development of female guidelines focused on safety. “So we will be conducted against some major duties of the Internet Security Act on the eve of this guideline [itself becoming enforceable]. “
The new draft guideline on keeping women and girls on the network is intended to supplement the previously wider guidelines on illegal content – which, for example, provides recommendations for the protection of juveniles from watching adult content on the network.
In December, the regulator published its finalized guidelines on how platforms and services should be reduced risk associated with illegal contentan area where the protection of children is a clear priority.
Previously produced a Baby security codewhich recommends that Internet services choose age checks and content filter to ensure that children are not exposed to inappropriate content such as pornography. And as it works on the implementation of the network security regime, it has also been developed Recommendations for insurance technologies for age for adult content websiteswith the aim of pushing porn pages to take effective steps by preventing minors from approaching content that is suitable for age.
The last set of guidelines was developed with the help of casualties, survivors, female advocacy groups and security experts, by ofcom. Includes four main areas where the regulator says that women disproportionately affect internet damage – namely: Internet misogyni; crowds and internet harassment; Internet family abuse; and intimate image abuse.
Safety by design
OFMU’s highest recommendation persuades services and platforms for designing the design of “safety according to design”. Smith told us that the regulator wanted to encourage technological companies to “take a step back” and “think about their user experience in a circle.” Although she acknowledged that some services have established some measures that are useful in reducing network risks in this area, she claimed that she is still lacking holistic thinking when it comes to the priority of women and girls safety.
“What we really look for is just a type of step change in the way the design processes work,” she told us, telling us that the goal was to ensure that the safety considerations were baked in product design.
She emphasized the increase in the image creating AI services, which she noted to have led to the “massive” growth of intimate abuse of the image of Deepfake as an example where technologists could take proactive measures to shift the risk of their tools that are weapons to target women and girls – It’s not.
“We think there are reasonable things that services could do in the design phase, which would help solve the risk of some of these damage,” she suggested.
Examples of “good” industrial practices of the prominent in the guidelines include Internet services to take action such as:
- Removal of geolocation according to default settings (to reduce the risk of privacy/stand);
- Conducting ‘abuse’ testing to determine how the service can be armed/abused;
- Taking steps to increase account safety;
- Designing in user’s inquiries intended to cry to consider twice before posting the abuse of content;
- And by providing affordable reporting tools that allow users to report problems.
As is the case with all of the OSA guidelines, not every measure will be relevant to each type or size of the service – since the law refers to large and small Internet services, and reduces different arenas from social media, to internet gatherings, games, games Forums and applications for messaging, to list a few. Thus, a large part of the work for internal companies will understand what compliance means in the context of their product.
Asked if of theCom has identified any services currently fulfilling the guidelines standards, Smith suggested that they did not. “There’s a lot of work to do in the whole industry,” she said.
She also tacitly acknowledged that they could be increasing challenges in view of some of the retrograde steps compared to confidence and safety by some major industrial players. For example, since he took over Twitter and defeated the social network as X, Elon Musk won his trust and security – in favor of following what he framed as a maximum approach to free speech.
In recent months, it seems that Meta-Koji has owns Facebook and Instagram-sub-produzo a few steps that mimic themselves, saying that he has ended the contracts for the thirty parties in favor of implementing the “community” system in the X-century on labels with crowds at content disputes, for example.
Transparency
Smith has suggested that ofCom’s response to such a high-level shifts-where the operator’s actions could risk being selected, not dimming, on the network, will focus on using the transparency and power of collecting information he has under OSA to make illustrated the influences and launched a user and launched a user and illustrated a user who illustrates the influences and movement of the user illustrate the influences and movement of the user and illustrate the users who illustrate the influences and trigger the user and illustrate the influence and forces the user consciousness.
So, in short, the tactic here looks like a “name and shame” – at least in the first instance.
“Once we complete the guidelines, we will produce a [market] Report … On who uses the lead, who follows what steps, what results they achieve for their users who are women and girls and really illuminate what protection on different platforms so that users can make informed decisions on where they spend their time online “she told us.
Smith suggested that companies that want to avoid the risk of being publicly shame for a bad effect on women’s safety, will be able to contact the “practical steps” of how to improve the situation for their users and resolve the risk of damaging reputation.
“The platforms operating in the UK will have to comply with the Law in the UK,” she added in the context of discussing the main platforms that de-rating trust and security. “This means respecting illegal harmful duties and protection of children’s duties under the Network Security Act.”
“I think our transparent force is also – if the industry changes direction and harm is increasing, here we will be able to shine the light with parliamentarians with parliamentarians and share relevant information with the UK users.”
Teh technology to deal with deepfake pornography
One type of internet damage that explicitly enhances its recommendations even before the implementation of OSA is an intimate abuse of images -as the latest draft guidelines suggest that the upload of hash to detect and remove such abused images, while Previously, the recommendations of thecoma have not been so far away.
“We have included additional steps in these guidelines that transcend what we have already outlined in our codes,” Smith noted, confirming with Ofcoma planning to update his earlier codes to include that change in the near future.
“So this is a way to say platforms that you can cross before that executive request by the following steps set in this leadership,” she added.
Ofcom recommended the use of the technology of reconciling the hash to suppress intimate abuse of the image due to a significant increase in this risk, by Smith-dedication to the abuse of the Deepfake image that was generated by AI-Generade.
“There were more Deepfake intimate abuse of paintings reported in 2023 than in all previous years in combination,” she noted, adding that of Ofcom has also collected more evidence of the effectiveness of the hash harmonization to fight this damage.
The draft guideline as a whole will now undergo counseling – with an ofcoming by calling for feedback by 23 May 2025 – after which they will produce final guidelines by the end of this year.
The complete 18 months after that, ofcom will then produce its first report to review industrial practice in this area.
“We enter in 2027. Before we make our first report on who is doing what [to protect women and girls online] “But now there’s nothing to stop the platform,” she added.
Responding to criticism to take OSA for too long, the implementation of the implementation, she said it was okay for the regulator to advise on compliance measures. However, since the final measure entered into force next month, she noticed that of theComa envisages the shift in the conversation surrounding the issue.
“[T]Hat will really start changing the conversation with platforms, especially, “she predicted, adding that she would also be able to start demonstrating progress in moving the needle when it comes to reducing internet damage.