Reducing Online Harms via Content Regulation: Balancing the Policy and User Interests to Improve the Cybersafety of Young People

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Over the past ten years, there has been a growing effort to moderate and regulate content present on online services such as commonly used social media platforms. Rather than leaving it up to individual companies and platforms to decide what stays and what goes, governments and international organisations have drafted and enforced regulations to reduce the amount of harmful content online and protect users. As a jurisdiction, the UK has joined other countries and conglomerates like Australia and the European Union in mandating that platforms reduce harmful online content introducing a suite of online safety regulations in 2019, culminating in the Online Safety Bill set for Royal Assent in Autumn 2023 set to change how platforms determine and reduce the content which poses a risk of harm online.At the same time, there has been increasing awareness of how content seen and interacted with can harm young people and children. Various studies have highlighted how specific types of harm can be caused to young people via their online interactions and consumption of content. However, minimal work is concerned with the mundane, everyday interactions, the types of content young people are seeing and the harms they are experiencing should they pick up their phones or log onto devices as an increasing part of everyday life.In light of new regulations being enacted with young people as a targeted user group, this project investigates the contemporary everyday interactions of young people with harmful and potentially harmful content to determine how effective new regulations being introduced in the UK will reduce the harm they come to. Based on the hypothesis that a better balance can be struck between the policy interests concerning regulation and the user interests concerning interactions online, this research centres on the regulatory developments in the United Kingdom and uses the following research question as a guide to inquiries:To what extent will the digital duties of care as regulatory mechanisms online impact the cybersafety of young people aged 12-20 interacting with user-to-user services?This project aims to capture their everyday experiences of online harm by engaging directly with young people as a user group. By comparing these experiences with the UK's regulations, the project aims to determine how effective the new digital duties and obligations platforms are in reducing harmful content and limiting children's negative experiences online. The anticipated impact of this project is to provide recommendations for additional regulatory guidance to the appointed online safety regulator Ofcom, addressing the gaps potentially present in the primary legislation and enhancing the understanding of the contemporary experiences of young people as they use platforms daily.