As online threats like child sexual abuse material, sextortion scams, and deepfakes proliferate, international regulatory bodies are stepping up their efforts to enhance online safety.
The eSafety Commissioner, along with members of the Global Online Safety Regulators Network, has released a joint statement emphasizing the need for regulatory coherence and coordination to address these growing concerns.
Unified Global Effort
Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, highlighted the shared challenges faced by national regulators in managing global online harms.
“We are national entities dealing with a complex set of global issues, often involving companies based overseas,” she said. “To navigate this rapidly evolving sector, we need to collaborate with like-minded regulators to share insights, experience, and best practices.”
Eighteen months ago, eSafety co-founded the Global Online Safety Regulators Network to foster a unified regulatory approach that prioritizes human rights, especially the protection of children, and supports technological innovation.
The network’s second position statement, titled “Regulatory Coherence and Coordination,” outlines key collaborative areas to enhance global online safety.
Key Areas of Collaboration
The position statement identifies four primary areas for collaboration:
- Regulatory Tools: Sharing methodologies and evaluation practices, developing common metrics, and enhancing risk assessment and transparency reporting.
- User Complaints Functions: Sharing evidence to identify and compare regional trends and compliance issues.
- Information Requests to Industry: Coordinating questions asked of industry to reduce compliance burdens and produce comparable global data.
- Safety Measures: Sharing experiences to identify best practices and reasonable steps to address specific harms and risk factors.
Future Challenges and Benefits
Ms. Inman Grant noted the increasing difficulty of regulation and enforcement as the industry shifts towards decentralization and new technologies like generative AI gain popularity.
She stressed the importance of regulatory coherence in promoting aligned objectives and outcomes without necessitating identical legal frameworks.
“Cooperation within the network is already showing positive results. By championing a human rights-based approach and embracing Safety by Design principles, we are committed to creating a safer digital ecosystem,” she said. “Global collaboration benefits users with enhanced safety that transcends borders and provides the industry with compliance economies of scale and greater legal certainty.”
The Network’s Members and Observers
The Global Online Safety Regulators Network includes key regulatory bodies from various countries:
- Australia: eSafety Commissioner
- United Kingdom: Office of Communications (Ofcom)
- France: Arcom
- Ireland: Coimisiún na Meán
- Slovakia: Council for Media Services
- South Africa: Film and Publication Board
- Republic of Korea: Korea Communications Standards Commission
- Fiji: Online Safety Commission
Observers in the network include global organizations such as 5Rights, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and WeProtect Global Alliance.
Moving Forward
The network welcomes new members and observers to foster coherent, human rights-based approaches to online safety regulation. The joint effort aims to ensure that regulatory frameworks are aligned in their objectives, enhancing online protections for all users.
Read the position statement Regulatory coherence and coordination: the role of the Global Online Safety Regulators Network.
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