Online Safety Network

➡️ The new(ish) Chair and Chief Exec of Ofcom are in front of the House of Commons DCMS Committee tomorrow morning at 10am. 📺 Watch the hearing here: https://lnkd.in/eWegvyAu #onlinesafetyact #onlinesafety #socialmedia #internetregulation

The Kaleidoscope Lab at Imperial College London is creating a teen advisory panel for a leading study on teen gaming and wellbeing. If you work with 13–15-year-olds who play games, please let them know the lab wants to hear from them so the study can capture their experiences.   If any young people are interested, pass on the flyer or visit: https://lnkd.in/ee7HK69X Young people who are selected will be compensated for their time.  Find out more about the Kaleidoscope Lab: https://lnkd.in/eZTaSRak #YoungPeoplesVoice #GamersWanted #GamingCommunity #YouthResearch #TeenWellbeing

At Parent Zone, we’ve been following the financial thread in gaming for years.  Our new R&D briefing looks at how we might identify and track risks more systematically via a Gaming Risk Index (GRI) We’ve been exploring the use of LLMs to analyse millions of user reviews for signals of child financial risks in mobile gaming. The briefing includes: What we’ve learned about training LLMs for risk assessment  Fresh data on financial risks in mobile gaming Practical steps we can take to better support families Read more: https://lnkd.in/ePbMRmmS

Great to see this really strong letter from The Premier League, The Football Association, EFL (English Football League) & Kick It Out to the UK House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee calling for so many of the same improvements to the #OnlineSafetyAct and its enforcement by Ofcom that our Network supports: ✅ #safetybydesign ✅ mitigation for all risks ✅ minimum standards for #termsofservice ✅ "no rollback" on standards Read it in full here: https://lnkd.in/eeCBsdTi

The UK has taken some small steps in recent months towards regulating AI chatbots to reduce potential harm to users but there are as yet no signs that comprehensive regulation of these products will be implemented anytime soon. But what's the situation elsewhere in the world? In her excellent new analysis, our Assistant Legal Adviser Michelle Ozanne has taken a look at international comparisons - including the US, Canada, the EU, Australia, Brazil and China - covering chatbot definitions, user transparency, age assurance and access control, content safety, prevention of harm and data protection. Do take a look at both the commentary and the detailed comparison table in the link below. https://lnkd.in/egYVgyGH

New: Laws restricting inc'st and str'ngulation p'rn coming into effect in November - a potentially transformative change. But will it have any effect? ❓ What are the new laws? New offences prohibiting the possession or distribution of three forms of adult content are coming into effect in early November - depictions of suffocation or str'ngulation, often known as choking - depictions of adults acting as children under 16 - depictions of inc'st and unlawful step family activity, where the activity is between family members (not just use of words mom) The potential ❓ As I told the BBC, this is a potential turning point with the commencement of these laws marking a line in the sand when we decided that we were no longer going to accept the normalisation of sexually violent content in p'rnography. The first extreme p'rn laws were introduced nearly 20 years ago, but the content has just gotten more and more extreme, as I detail in my book #Exposed ☢️ We need platforms and Ofcom to act But the real test will be whether the powerful online porn platforms and social media such as X are held accountable for the s'xually violent content they host, recommend and algorithmically promote. We should be asking them when they are going to take this content down. All eyes must now be laser-focused on Ofcom, ensuring it produces robust guidance and enforces it. And fast. Unfortunately, the omens are not good. Enforcement action tends to be slow, and we have not yet seen any steps from Ofcom regarding the rape pornography that is unlawful but remains accessible online. Not about individuals As I said to the BBC, this is not about prosecuting individuals, but transforming the online pornographic landscape and that requires the platforms and regulator to act.  fingers crossed 🤞 we see some action https://lnkd.in/exH9Tk9j

🤔 Can the criminal law be used to prosecute this robot-enabled sexual violence? YES. While this is a 'new' form of abuse, existing laws can be applied IF criminal justice systems are innovative, flexible and determined to challenge all forms of ab~se. Too often, we get blinded by the new tech, think it's more difficult or complicated than it actually is, as well as some professionals refusing to adapt existing laws and policies to the changing environment. ▶️ What has happened? It appears that young men operated a robot which sexually harassed a young girl. Videos have also been shared on social media of the robot making vulgar gestures in public. ▶️ But robots can't be prosecuted? No, but robots are operated by humans. The men here made a decision to operate the robot to carry out this harassment. The robot is the means they chose to harass this young girl. ▶️ This is like chatbots being used to generate illegal images Yes, this is similar to chatbots being used to generate illegal images. Some police even said you couldn't prosecute as Grok-generated images as it was the chatbot that did it. No, the person prompting the chatbot is responsible. The chatbot is the means to the end. ▶️ It's also like avatars harassing others in the metaverse The person behind the avatar, directing it, is responsible for the actions. In the metaverse, the harassment can also be experienced physically due to haptic technology. My research with Carlotta Rigotti labels this #MetaRape ▶️ Is this sexual assault? It could be. English law says that assault takes place by touching and this is defined as including touching with any part of the body, with ‘anything else’ and ‘through anything’. This has been interpreted as including touching through clothing or with an object or instrument. It could therefore be interpreted to include a robot. Any why not? We should adapt with the ways in which crimes are committed. 🤔 What about autonomous robots? The analysis will change at some stage. However, what we need to remember is that even if autonomous robots start harassing others, they are doing so because their training data is based on the world we live in where harassment of women and girls is common. #robot #dwdigital #sexualharassment #TFVAWG #online #Germany