Moved by
Lord Knight of Weymouth
270A: After Clause 144, insert the following new Clause—
“Establishment of the Advocacy Body for Children
(1) There is to be a body corporate (“the Advocacy Body for Children”) to represent the interests of child users of regulated services.
(2) A “child user”—
(a) means any person aged 17 years or under who uses or is likely to use regulated internet services, and
(b) includes both any existing child user and any future child user.
(3) The functions of the Advocacy Body for Children must include, in relation to regulated services—
(a) representing the interests of child users;
(b) the protection and promotion of those interests;
(c) monitoring implications of this Act’s implementation for those interests;
(d) consideration of children’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including (but not limited to) their participation rights;
(e) any other matter connected with those interests.
(4) The “interests of child users” means the interests of children in relation to the discharge by any regulated company of its duties under this Act, including—
(a) safety duties about illegal content, in particular CSEA content,
(b) safety duties protecting children,
(c) children’s access assessment duties, and
(d) other enforceable requirements relating to children.
(5) The Advocacy Body for Children must—
(a) have due regard to the interests of child users that display one or more protected characteristics within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010,
(b) assess emerging threats to child users of regulated services and bring information regarding those threats to OFCOM, and
(c) publish an annual report related to the interests of child users.
(6) The Advocacy Body for Children may undertake research on its own account.
(7) The Advocacy Body for Children is to be defined as a statutory consultee for OFCOM’s regulatory decisions which impact upon the interests of children.
(8) To establish the Advocacy Body for Children, OFCOM must—
(a) appoint an organisation or organisations known to represent all children in the United Kingdom to be designated with the functions under this section, or
(b) create an organisation to carry out the designated functions.
(9) The governance functions of the Advocacy Body for Children must—
(a) with the exception of the approval of its budget, remain independent of OFCOM, and
(b) include representation of child users by young people under the age of 25 years.
(10) The budget of the Advocacy Body for Children will be subject to annual approval by the board of OFCOM.
(11) The Secretary of State must give directions to OFCOM as to how it should recover the costs relating to the expenses of the Advocacy Body for Children, or the Secretary of State in relation to the establishment of the Advocacy Body, through the provisions to require a provider of a regulated service to pay a fee (as set out in section 75).”
Member’s explanatory statement
This new Clause would require Ofcom to establish a new advocacy body for child users of regulated internet services to represent, protect and promote their interests.