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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:

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:

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

The survey can be found in the Related Items

Ends.


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