Ofcom has published detailed plans for the regulation of tech firms following the recent launch of the government’s long-awaited Online Safety Bill.

The organisation said that its first priority as the UK’s new online safety regulator will be protecting children, highlighting research also released today which reveals the scale and nature of “scattergun” friend requests used by predators looking to groom children online.

The UK watchdog has put forward proposals for the enforcement of the new legislation, including making boards or governance bodies at firms providing user-to-user and messaging services – including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook – carry out an annual review and record how they have assessed risk management activities in relation to illegal harms, and how developing risks are being monitored and managed.

In its illegal harms consultation, it suggested that content moderation teams at tech firms should be resourced to meet both performance targets and increases in demand caused by external events like geopolitical tensions.

“Regulation is here, and we’re wasting no time in setting out how we expect tech firms to protect people from illegal harm online, while upholding freedom of expression," said Melanie Dawes, Ofcom chief executive. "Children have told us about the dangers they face, and we’re determined to create a safer life online for young people in particular.”

Ofcom's research found that three in five secondary-school-aged children (11-18 years) have been contacted online in a way that potentially made them feel uncomfortable, with 30 per cent having received an unwanted friend or follow request.

One in six secondary-schoolers have been sent naked or half-dressed photos or been asked to share these themselves.

Under the draft rules published today, the regulator called for larger and higher risk user-to-user services to ensure that children are not presented with lists of suggested friends and that children do not appear in other users' lists of suggested friends.

It also said that accounts outside a child's connection lists should not be able to send them a direct message, while their location information should also not be visible to any other user.

“Our figures show that most secondary-school children have been contacted online in a way that potentially makes them feel uncomfortable," continued Dawes. "For many, it happens repeatedly.

"If these unwanted approaches occurred so often in the outside world, most parents would hardly want their children to leave the house. Yet somehow, in the online space, they have become almost routine. That cannot continue.”

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