The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has published its Draft Online Safety Bill. The legislation requires providers of some digital services, defined in the bill as user-to-user services and search services, to take steps to shield the young from illegal, inappropriate or harmful content and puts safeguards in place to protect free speech online.
It sounds good in principal – online harm is a very serious issue – but according to the Government’s own impact assessment, around 24,000 businesses will fall within scope of the measures with 236 medium sized businesses expected to shoulder the burden of £255k in additional costs per year to comply.
Here’s what business leaders need to know…