Global efforts to keep children safe online will be boosted under
a new UK-US statement agreed by UK Technology Secretary and US Commerce Secretary Gina
Raimondo.
To improve the sharing of expertise and evidence, the UK and US
governments will set up and launch of a new joint children's
online safety working group.
Currently there is limited research and evidence on the causal
impact that social media has on children and young people.
Once established, the group will work on key areas including
promoting better transparency from platforms and consider
researcher's access to privacy-preserving data on social media,
helping better understand the impacts and risks of the digital
world on young people, including new technologies like generative
AI.
This will build on the work between the UK and international
partners to help ensure safety is built into technology from the
start to help deliver a more secure digital world for young
people.
Technology Secretary said:
“The online world brings incredible benefits for young people,
enriching their education and social lives. But these experiences
must take place in an environment which has safety baked in from
the outset, not as an afterthought. Delivering this goal is my
priority.
“The digital world has no borders and working with our
international partners like the US - one of our closest allies
and home to the biggest tech firms - is essential. This joint
statement will turn our historic partnership towards delivering a
safer online world for our next generation.”
The statement outlines both countries' commitment to ensuring the
benefits of technology can be maximised for society, as well as
social media companies' responsibility to respect human
rights and deliver safe experiences, especially for children.
Both the UK and US are spearheading international approaches on
children's online safety. New figures from a UK government
research report released today show the countries are leading
efforts globally in ‘safety technology' which is focused on
creating safer online experiences for users, from helping
platforms to filter out and block harmful content, to detecting
and removing fraudulent advertisements. The safety technology
sector in the UK is second only in size to the US, and companies
contributed over £600 million to the UK economy in the last
year.
The UK's Online Safety Act places duties on online platforms to
protect children's safety and put in place measures to mitigate
risks. Platforms will also need to proactively tackle the most
harmful illegal content and activity.
The UK government is committed to working with the regulator to
get the Act implemented swiftly and effectively to deliver a
safer online world. The Technology Secretary met with Ofcom Chief
Executive earlier this week to receive
an update on how the regulator is progressing with getting the
Act's protections in place.
In the US, the government's Kids Online Health and Safety
Taskforce is advancing the health, safety and privacy of children
online.
The statement also commits both countries to working with
international partners on the joint priority, promoting the
statement's principles and common solutions to champion a safer
online world for children.
