Online Safety Act 2023: Platform Categorisation

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

As I mentioned, the Government share the significant concerns about small but risky services. The Ofcom taskforce is working to ensure compliance with the Online Safety Act, focusing on platforms hosting priority harm content such as CSAM; hate and terror content; suicide, self-harm and eating disorder forums; and violence against women and girls. That is a very important focus of activity. As I also mentioned, this is something that we expect Ofcom to enforce robustly. Ofcom has the Government’s full backing to use its enforcement powers, and the chair of Ofcom is undertaking a review of Ofcom’s enforcement capabilities and powers. The Government are in discussion about what more needs to be done here.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, is it not the case that, once again, Ofcom is hopeless, and we need to review its role? Unless we have an effective regulator, things such as this will happen on a regular basis. We need to do something about the poor standard of regulators in this country.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

Ensuring that there is a safe, digital experience for citizens and young people in this country, as my noble friend alludes to, is absolutely essential, and we expect robust enforcement of the Online Safety Act. We welcome the capabilities review commissioned by Sir Ian Cheshire, the new chair of Ofcom, which is expected to conclude this autumn. We expect the review to identify practical improvements needed to strengthen the pace and impact of Ofcom’s enforcement function. Enforcement goes hand in hand with the further measures the Government will bring in to regulate the online environment for young people.