Strengthening the OSA: our 10-point plan for Government

This year has already been dominated by countless thousands of women and children being subjected to the creation of illegal non-consensual sexual images via Grok/X. We welcome the Government’s prompt action to address these illegal actions in response. But rather than the unevidenced, blunt social media ban announced today, we believe the most efficient and effective way to stop the tech companies continuing to harm our children - and many others - is to strengthen and enforce the existing Online Safety Act.

A few simple changes would ensure that products are safe before they are released or don't come to market at all, that there are guardrails for new AI-driven tools such as chatbots, Ofcom's ability to act decisively in holding the tech companies to account is strengthened, and Ministers can deliver on Parliament’s - and parents’ - desire to hold these companies accountable and ensure they can’t profit from harm.

Our 10-point plan

The Online Safety Act Network has consistently called on the Government to act swiftly to strengthen the Online Safety Act (OSA), a call reiterated by the 42 child protection organisations and individuals - many of them members of our Network - in their statement against a social media ban at the weekend.

Next week, we will be launching in Parliament our 10-point plan for strengthening the OSA. Backed by 23 expert organisations - including the NSPCC, 5 Rights, Molly Rose Foundation, Internet Watch Foundation, EVAW and CCDH - spanning interests in child protection, mental health, suicide and self harm, violence against women and girls, and online abuse, the plan includes targeted proposals to:

• strengthen Ofcom’s approach to the OSA’s codes and their enforcement;
• deliver on Parliament’s intent that tech companies should be held responsible for the design, development and deployment of unsafe, untested products and services;
• future-proof the regime and bringing harmful AI - particularly chatbots - fully into scope.

This package would ensure that Ofcom uses its powers in the way that Parliament intended, holding companies to account for action to address all the risks that occur on their platforms, and reinforce the Act’s underpinning objective to make products and services “safe by design” - for everyone. The plan would deliver a minimum standard of safety for all UK social media users and prevent these being rolled back on the whim of platform owners. And it would also plug urgent gaps in the legislation, such as the lack of full coverage for AI chatbots.

The Online Safety Act Network has been calling for many of these amendments since the very earliest stages of Ofcom’s implementation. Had they been adopted earlier, the regulator’s set of enforcement options against X in relation to the Grok rollout would have looked very different, countless women and children may have been spared degrading humiliation on a public social media platform and the Government would not now be rushing to respond to the public and political outcry.

We urge the Government not to wait for another such scandal - and the resultant harm to UK users, whether women, children or vulnerable people - to take the steps needed to strengthen this landmark piece of legislation. We also urge them not to use up valuable time and resources on a diversionary public engagement campaign when these would be better used on the immediate delivery of the impactful measures that are already within their gift to implement.