How can international collaboration improve UK online safety?

To maintain its status as a leader in online safety, the UK must keep pace with new approaches to combat online harms. PA Consulting experts Patrick Cronin and Natalia Greene look to other countries for new insights and inspiration.

As a nation, the UK’s approach to online safety is cohesive – one that draws on the collective efforts of government bodies, law enforcement, regulators, charities, and safety tech companies. As a result, the UK has made significant strides in terms of online safety. In October 2023, the Online Safety Act passed into law, further cementing the UK’s progress. The Act imposes a requirement for online service providers to protect all users from illegal harm, with further safeguards for children.

While legislation could have a great positive impact, it can struggle to keep up with the fast-evolving nature of technology. Despite the progress made, it’s vital to recognise the scope and scale of digital threats. These threats can shatter financial markets, cause political instability, and devastate lives. The rise of AI is a key example: while the technology has huge potential to unlock opportunity, it can also be exploited by criminals to cause harm.

To remain at the forefront of online safety, the UK needs to stay vigilant and highly proactive when it comes to emerging threats. From evidence-based approaches in Ireland to public awareness campaigns in New Zealand, there’s a lot to be learnt from other regions.

Take an evidence-led approach

Grey areas are rife in the digital space. How do we balance privacy and safety? What constitutes a duty of care? How do we apply the same restrictions that are in place in a physical environment to a digital one? Regulators play a vital role in clarifying the most complex questions. To do their job, they need to have robust statutory frameworks to follow backed by evidence. As the regulatory landscape becomes more complex, regulators need to ensure a firm legal footing for requirements placed on providers in their jurisdiction.

We’ve seen this approach succeed with the Irish Media Commission, which is responsible for media regulation and development. The research commissioned by the regulator was foundational to the development of the Online Safety Code, setting out binding rules for video-sharing platforms that have EU headquarters in Ireland.

The research reviewed the full range of harms and analysed their prevalence and impact, looking at the features of online platforms that enable and exacerbate them. Algorithms, for example, can cause significant harm by serving users with similar content, where the harm happens through accumulative exposure. With strong evidence to underpin these decisions, the Commissioner successfully defended the decisions to determine that Reddit and Tumblr are in regulatory scope, a decision that the platforms had challenged in court.

Better balance the regulatory burden

Fostering growth is high on the agenda for the new UK government, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses, which make up the majority of private sector businesses in the UK. When it comes to online safety, these businesses can be at a disadvantage: their limited resources for content moderation, risk assessments, and user reporting features can complicate compliance.

The UK is a world leader in safety legislation – regulators know that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. Regulators can work with businesses to lessen the burden, share the overheads associated with deploying specialist technologies, and drive efficiencies.

This article was first published in Civil Service World.