UK regulatory agency OfCom, the organization responsible for enforcing the UK’s “Online Safety Act” (OSA), is holding a three-day conference called “The Online Safety Act Explained: How to Comply.” A hybrid event with one day of in-person events and two online only days, the conference will run Monday, Feb. 3 through Wednesday, Feb 5.
According to the event page for the conference, the interactive sessions will “explain what the Online Safety Act means for you including new duties and deadlines,” show attendees how to use Ofcom’s “digital toolkit to guide compliance” and give attendees the opportunity to “engage in interactive Q & A sessions.” The conference’s daily sessions are scheduled for 14:30 – 17:30 GMT (6:30 – 9:30 PST/9:30 – 12:30 EST in the U.S.).
On the first day of the conference, Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dawes will outline “the changes we expect from industry to keep people safe online, our expectations for the year ahead, and what we are doing to support online services with compliance,” according to the event page. Other sessions on the first day of the conference will offer “a snapshot of upcoming duties and deadlines in 2025” and “an overview of some important areas of illegal harm online and Ofcom’s policy decisions on how to tackle them.”
“You will hear examples from our subject matter experts of the human cost of harms that drives our approach, how we have responded and next steps for illegal harms,” according to OfCom’s description. “We introduce our approach to enforcement and how Ofcom will take action as duties come into force.”
Sessions on the second day of the conference include “How to complete your illegal content risk assessment and protect your users with digital toolkit demo,” a Q&A on “Illegal content risk assessments and Codes of Practice,” and “How to carry out your children’s access assessments and the role of age assurance.”
The agenda for the third day includes a “deep dive into key topics that are relevant to your business,” including the panel “Online safety worldwide: international regulatory coherence,” what it means to “low risk” in the context of the OSA regulations and “how to tackle complex risks, including child sexual abuse, grooming and fraud.”
The final session of the third day is particularly relevant to adult industry attendees: “What the online safety duties mean for services that allow pornography – age assurance and beyond, with Q&A.”
Starting at 17:25 GMT (9:25am PST/12:25pm EST) and running for an hour, the session is designed for “services that allow pornographic content on their site or app.” OfCom said the session “may also be of interest to those who want to know more about the concept of highly effective age assurance and how the new rules will prevent children from encountering pornographic content online.”
For more information and to register to attend, go to the “Online Safety Act Explained: How to Comply” event page.
