Speeches by Hinds.

“You have made the point about your requirement that if platforms cannot demonstrate how old people are, they assume they have younger people on their platform. I think that principle is also hardwired into the age appropriate design code, which has been around since 2021, I think, but I am not sure many people believe …”

“Can I ask about the demarcation between Ofcom and the ICO, which I think sometimes confuses people a little bit and very understandably? The week before last, you had the children’s codes published, but it is the ICO that produces the age appropriate design code. On age checking in particular, could you say a word abou…”

“Did you say half in the last year?”

“You can be sustained and still unseen, especially by a younger audience. I was not suggesting, as you say, chasing the long tail. I think probably everybody here thinks there is a particular value to the public sector broadcasters, but they are not being seen in the volumes that you would want in the 16 to 24 age group…”

“Dame Melanie, you have already mentioned the importance of YouTube and social media for news consumption, and just now you spoke about the need to consider algorithmic recommendations when talking about the prominence of individual pieces of content rather than entire channels or platforms on TV devices. When we talk a…”

“Perhaps you can follow up to the Committee with a bit more on what we can expect to be in the transparency reports and how they will therefore be a useful tool for the public.”

“The key question is, do you think it does that? Do your lawyers think the Online Safety Act enables you to hold platforms to account for what is in their terms and conditions—in this case, specifically on misinformation and disinformation?”

“This is my final question, the Chair will be pleased to hear. This is another area where platforms will have their own terms and conditions. In my understanding of the Act, you as the regulator can hold platforms to account for doing what they have said that they will do—their contract with the customer. What can you d…”

“I want specifically to come on to mis and disinformation in a moment. To be clear, unless the content is itself illegal and covered by your provisions on illegal content, howsoever it gets served up to the individual, the work of the algorithm is not part of your concern—I don’t mean that in a bad way—and neither is it…”

“Yes, but they will come under your codes even if they were only served up once and no algorithm was involved.”

“Is either regulator similarly looking at a systemic level at the role of programmatic advertising and/or creator funds in the type of material that is served up to people?”

“Section 152 of the Act requires Ofcom to establish and maintain an advisory committee on disinformation and misinformation to publish a report within 18 months of being established. I think it has its first meeting next week, on Friday. What will it cover?”

“Under section 77, you can require information about disinformation from platforms and, I think, then publish that in the form of transparency reports. How will that manifest? Will you, for example, be able to report on the number of automated accounts, or the amount of inauthentic activity on platforms, because they ha…”

“To be clear, I did not mean only for children, but obviously that is a very important part.”

“On another matter to do with the demarcation between ICO and Ofcom, which of you is more responsible for thinking about the extent to which algorithmic recommendation systems create echo chambers?”

“I totally agree. Lastly, the children’s code was a very important step forward, but there are also hundreds of thousands of children under the age of 13 accessing a service that is nominally meant to be for children aged 13 or above. There are also hundreds of thousands of children who are over 13, but because of the a…”

“I am talking about the scraping.”

“I should not have interrupted you. Sorry, I misunderstood what you said. Are you saying that the same remuneration system for when you write material for somebody else could be used for remuneration for your material being used by AI, even if you cannot say, “I produced this. It appeared there”?”

“Back to AI, how much of a competitive threat ultimately is this? Will AI actually be funny on purpose?”

“How long do we have?”