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21|06|06

Ofcom research into consumer protection on the internet

Ofcom today published research which reveals the importance of effective industry self-regulation and consumer empowerment in addressing consumer protection issues on the internet. The report examines the broad range of processes used in the UK and other countries to address a number of consumer protection issues online, including illegal or harmful internet content.

The internet has rapidly become an essential part of our professional and personal lives. 59% of all UK adults now have access to the internet at home, with 68% of these connected to high speed, content-rich services via broadband. The internet connects a global audience to each other and to products, goods and services all over the world.

However, consumers expect to be protected from fraud and other forms of harm whether online or not. Inappropriate content should be prevented from reaching children and illegal content, of which child pornography is an obvious example, should be removed from view.

Ofcom’s research is intended to inform the current debate about the most appropriate approach to protecting consumers online. Key observations in the report include:

• successful consumer protection on the internet has generally involved a much higher degree of co- and self-regulation than has been the case for other media;
• effective consumer protection requires more significant levels of international cooperation than currently exist; and
• the internet places a much greater responsibility than before on consumers to take action to protect themselves.

Content regulation online

The report is published as the European Commission takes forward proposals to revise the Television Without Frontiers Directive, which governs the regulation of audio-visual content across Europe.

The Commission intends to extend the scope of existing statutory broadcast content regulation to include audio-visual content distributed on all platforms, including the internet. Ofcom has previously stated that this could prove to be counter-productive, threatening to stifle a new industry and extending statutory regulation unnecessarily.

Research highlights

There is a significant amount of general consumer and child protection legislation that applies equally online and new legislation has been introduced to deal with specific issues raised by the internet.

Additionally, a number of industry self-regulatory mechanisms have been established:

• TrustUK is a quality seal system identifying vendors that have signed a code of conduct in relation to e-commerce;
• the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) requires members to comply with data protection rules and sign up to the TrustUK seal programme;
• the Internet Watch Foundation identifies and takes action against images of child pornography as well as criminally obscene and racist content; and
• the Internet Crime Forum encourages cooperation between Internet Service Providers and law enforcement agencies in the UK in relation to malicious computer activity.

However, the internet’s open nature presents challenges as well as benefits:

• many consumers are wary of undertaking transactions online; only 28% of internet users are willing to disclose credit card information;
• theft of personal information through phishing (tricking the consumer into sending sensitive information to a fraudulent organisation or individual) and pharming (tricking the user’s web browser into accessing a fraudulent website) are becoming increasingly common; and
• unilateral national level approaches to blocking or removing illegal and harmful content are of limited effectiveness without international cooperation.

The survey can be found in the Related Items

Ends.

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