Lola McEvoy

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I pay tribute to the right hon. and learned Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) for his exceptional work and for his collegiate approach to this issue. In the interests of time, I will dive straight into the detail of what Ofcom is at risk of failing on in the implementation of its children’s safety codes. As a trade union organiser, I know more than most about risk assessments and how they can be used in practice to protect people. A static risk assessment, as is required by the Act, will be used to assess the risk at that point in time; there will be a legal requirement to update or check that assessment within a year of its first iterance. A static risk assessment will assess the risk broadly, and if the online platforms adhere to the assessment, they will be in keeping with the legislation and will be given safe harbour, as has already been covered. That is not sufficient for the cohort of people using the platform at this time. The protection of children codes that are being published in April must require the use of a dynamic risk assessment. Dynamic risk assessment is used by the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and several other work environments where the cohort they work with is vulnerable or at risk of injury or harm, and/or where the staff are at risk of injury from the work they do. Dynamic risk assessments are updated in real time. If the risk cannot be mitigated in real time, the activity must be stopped. I cannot fathom why these assessments are not being incorporated in the first iterance of the children’s codes. They would require the platforms to act in real time when they see children coming to harm, engaging in harmful behaviours or being exposed to harmful content. We know that myriad problems will arise when the codes are implemented. I believe strongly that if a dynamic risk assessment is included for those who say that they have children on their platforms, children will be safer in real time. This is important not only because a dynamic risk assessment is enhanced, but because it makes sure that there is a point person responsible for that work. A point person at the platforms is already included in the Online Safety Act, responsible for being in touch with the Government and Ofcom and for implementing the measures in the Act. A DRA would mean that there was a responsible point person looking in real time to protect children. That is the first point. I have several other points to make, but only a tiny amount of time. First, it is clear to me that functionalities should be included in the scope of the Act. I have spoken to Ofcom and to the platforms about it. The platforms are already including functionalities in their preliminary risk assessments, so their reading of the Act is that functionalities must be included. If they are going further already, I do not know why Ofcom would not stipulate that they continue to do so. Ofcom’s desire to include a toggle on and off mechanism for some of the functionalities is not sufficient to protect children because, as many of us who have been involved in these debates for a long time know, children will just switch them on. It is not sufficient to have a default off option either. I will also touch on Jools’ law. As we have previously discussed in the Chamber, we need an amendment to make sure that in the tragic event of a child's death, a notice is automatically issued to the regulated online platforms to freeze the child’s accounts to protect them from deletion and to protect the data for the families going through an inquest. I pay tribute to the bereaved families who have worked on this. Finally, on timing, we have heard that any changes to the codes will delay implementation. I do not agree with that.