This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Education Safeguarding Professional, Zarine Power for the attention of all schools.
Ofcom has published a statement and guidance on age assurance and children's access assessments, outlining what online services must do under the Online Safety Act to help prevent children from encountering pornography and other harmful content. Online providers must take action to start to comply with these new rules. Services that allow pornography must introduce processes to check the age of users by July 2025. In addition, all user-to-user and search services, must carry out a children’s access assessment to establish if their service is likely to be used by children by 16 April. Once the Protection of Children Codes and guidance are finalised in April 2025, platforms likely to be used by children will need to assess the risks and take appropriate action – which may include using age assurance. Ofcom has also announced an age assurance enforcement programme which will involve reaching out to adult services to inform them of their obligations under the Online Safety Act.
Read the news story: Age checks to protect children online