The UK’s communications regulator has called on technology firms to start preparing for the Online Safety Bill before it is enacted.

Ofcom, which today published detail plans for implementing the new laws, said that it will launch a 100-day plan after the Bill passes to get the online safety regime up and running.

The regulator said it expects the new legislation to pass by early next year.

“We’ll move quickly once the Bill passes to put these ground-breaking laws into practice,” said Mark Bunting, Ofcom online safety policy director. “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.”

In the first 14 weeks after the authority’s powers kick in, it plans to kick start the first phase of the regulation, which is protecting users from illegal content harms, including child sexual exploitation and abuse, and terrorist content.

During this time, it will set out a draft Code of Practice on illegal content harms explaining how services can comply with their duties to tackle them and a draft guidance on how the organisation expects services to assess the risk of individuals coming across illegal content on their services and associated harms.

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