“Keeping people safe online while ensuring their rights, such as freedom of expression, are protected is crucial and we are pleased that the Online Safety Bill introduces measures to manage this."
Responding to the announcement in today’s Queen’s Speech of the Online Safety Bill, Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said:
“Keeping people safe online while ensuring their rights, such as freedom of expression, are protected is crucial and we are pleased that the Online Safety Bill introduces measures to manage this.
“We support the appointment of Ofcom as an online safety regulatory and hope it will go some way to reducing online harms, including of children and vulnerable adults.
“We are pleased that the Bill will require platforms to take responsibility for what’s on their website and those who use it, but we support calls for it to also include consideration of financial harms through scams as well as other types of harm.
“Councils’ trading standards teams play a vital role in tackling fraud, including online, but regulatory services are increasingly stretched. Long-term, sustainable funding would allow councils to tackle a greater number of cases but it is vital that online platforms ultimately take responsibility for fraudulent activity taking place on their site.”