今天的写作 每日电讯报, Ofcom's Chief Executive Dame Melanie Dawes sets out the 第一个主要步骤 we're taking towards helping people in the UK live a safer life online.
If you are a child in Britain today, you can expect to see in the 22nd century. Your coming years will be shaped by artificial intelligence, with its promised revolutions in science and industry. Your online life will blend seamlessly with the physical world around you, fuelled by changes in technology that are constant and profound.
If you’re a parent, like me, this might seem both exhilarating and unnerving. After all, new opportunities seldom come without risk. The task of our generation is to recognise those risks as they emerge, 并采取积极的措施来解决这些问题. For Ofcom, that work took a major step forward today.
We are the new online safety regulator, 数字服务使每个人都比以往任何时候都更加联系和娱乐. Sometimes, those sites and apps serve up content that is harmful to younger minds. Some of it is illegal, and shouldn’t be served up to children or 成年人.
So as we take our powers to hold tech firms to account, we cannot waste a moment. 今天, 一有机会就, we are setting out how we expect to protect people from illegal harm online.
Children are our first priority, and the risk they face is real. 英国通信管理局令人担忧的新数据显示，大多数中学生(60%)在网上接触的方式可能会让他们感到不舒服. Some 30% have received an unwanted friend or follow request. And around one in six have either been sent naked or half-dressed photos, or been asked to share these themselves.
If these unwanted approaches happened so often in the outside world, many of us would hardly want our children to leave the house. Yet somehow, in the online space, they have become almost routine. 这种情况不能继续下去.
60%中学生在网上接触的方式可能会让他们感到不舒服
根据我们的计划，科技公司需要采取具体措施保护人们免受非法伤害. That starts with measures to protect minors from harmful interactions, such as removing them from friend suggestion lists and blocking strangers’ messages.
我们还希望看到更多的自动检测和删除儿童性虐待材料, and much stronger measures to stop children accessing pornography. 我们希望在线服务采取果断措施，防止青少年接触到危险的自杀和自残内容.
适合所有年龄的用户, we will focus on deterring online fraud, as well as action to tackle terrorist content.
重要的是，Ofcom不是一个审查机构. We won’t have powers to take content down. 而不是, 我们的工作是通过制定新的标准，并要求公司在设计服务时考虑到安全，来解决造成伤害的根本原因. 我们将确保我们的规则切实可行，充分考虑到人们的隐私和言论自由, 在线讨论的命脉.
这是个大工程. 这不会很快或很容易实现. The technical detail must be right; our draft regulations today comprise 1,000 pages. 我们不能单独做到这一点. Protecting people from online risk will demand a broad coalition of those who care.
“我们将确保我们的规定切实可行，充分考虑到人们的隐私和言论自由。”
因此，今天我们正在与专家、行业和公众就我们计划采取的方法进行磋商. We’re setting out how we assess online risk, how companies should measure and reduce it, and how we’ll enforce against those who fall short. 议会将在明年行业行为准则生效前对其进行审查.
We are undaunted by the scale of the challenge, and inspired by its urgency. Ofcom has spent three years preparing for our new role. 我们已经培训并聘请了具有在线行业经验的专家团队，因此我们的监管将是可行的，并能适应变化.
Of course, we cannot solve the internet’s every ill. 危险是人类生活的一部分. We cannot shield young people from all sources of jeopardy, and we shouldn’t try. 但我们也不应该容忍孩子在网络上面临某种程度的风险，这种风险是我们在现实生活中永远无法接受的. Regulation is here, and Ofcom is ready to make a difference.
