My rights online 

Online Safety Framework

Thanks to our Online Safety Framework, there are now rules to make sure children and adults are protected from harmful or illegal content online. By law, platforms must: 

• Make it easy to report harmful and illegal content online 
• Let you appeal a decision if you’re not happy with the outcome 
• Promote safety features for children and young people e.g. parental controls 

If a platform doesn’t have these things in place, you can report to us. 

Watch our short video below to see which new rights children and adults have under this framework.  

Some rights are especially relevant to the online space. Platforms need to take measures to make sure these rights in particular are protected.  

Right to freedom of expression  

While we need to be mindful about what we say online and not cause harm to others, freedom of expression and hearing different voices are essential in a democracy. You have the right to freedom of expression and if a regulated platform takes down your post or video and doesn’t explain why, this is not OK. If this happens, you have the right to appeal the platform’s decision. If nothing happens or you don’t get a response, you can report to us.

Right to be protected from harm   

You have a right to be safe and protected from harm, and that includes in the online space. This does not mean that you may never see things that you disagree with online, or that might upset you. The Online Safety Framework puts an obligation on platforms to reduce the risk to the public, and especially children, of seeing harmful or illegal content online. Now, certain large platforms must do risk assessments for their service. As a general rule, online platforms need to make sure they are more transparent on how algorithms work. They should offer options for recommender systems (‘for you’ feeds) and they should have information on how their algorithms work in their Terms and Conditions.

Right to information  

When you are signing up to a new platform which is mainly used by young people, as a young person, it’s your right to get Terms and Conditions information in ways you understand. These should be easy to find and written in a way that is clear to you. 

Special protections for children  

The laws that form the Online Safety Framework put special importance on making sure that you, as a young person, are protected from harmful content online. It is obvious to say that if you see something horrible or unsuitable, you can’t ‘un-see’ it and this could have a lasting negative effect on you. These rules put obligations on certain large platforms (whose terms of service allow users under 16 to use the service) to make sure there are parental controls on hand so that parents have more control over what their child sees on the platform. Certain online platforms must have clear policies on age assurance, to make sure that those under the age of 18 don’t access age-inappropriate material.   

You may think that many of these safety mechanisms already exist on the various online platforms. The difference is now they are there by law and platforms must use them. If they don’t, you can report this to us and our teams will follow up with the various platforms, asking for information, reports and may even decide to do an investigation if they find that platforms are breaking these rules. All this means is that platforms are now accountable, and we work to ensure that the internet is a better place for everyone.