INTRODUCTION
The Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) is a new set of laws that protects children and adults online. It puts a range of new duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for their users’ safety on their platforms. The Act requires the forum to implement systems and processes to reduce risks that it is used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content when it does appear.
The strongest protections in the Act have been designed for children. We will be required to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content and provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online when they do arise.
The Act will also protect adult users, ensuring that we will need to be more transparent about which kinds of potentially harmful content we allow, and give members more control over the types of content they want to see.
Ofcom is the independent regulator of Online Safety. It will set out steps we can take to fulfil their safety duties in codes of practice. It has a broad range of powers to assess and enforce our compliance with the framework.
Our safety duties are proportionate to factors including the risk of harm to individuals, and the size and capacity of the forum. This makes sure that while safety measures will need to be put in place across the board, as a small forum with limited functionality, we aren't required to take the same actions as the largest corporations, however, we still have to comply.
Ofcom is required to take users’ rights into account when setting out steps to take. We have simultaneous duties to pay particular regard to users’ rights when fulfilling our safety duties.
The aim of the Guinea Pig Forum is to provide a safe place where every person is welcome and respected. It is a place where we can celebrate everything piggy related and learn together, so that our beloved piggies have the best possible lives. It is a place to have fun and find support.
In order to achieve this, we need to comply with the new Online Safety Act and accept that we all share the responsibility.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
Always conduct yourself the same way on the internet as you would face to face. Be aware of what you say and how you say it, as well as how it could be interpreted. Try not to use abbreviations, as these can sometimes be misconstrued or misunderstood.
Remember that English is not the first language for every member and some members come from a pre-digital age.
Never provide personal details of yourself.
Do not share anything you don’t want the whole world to know - this is a public forum.
Do not post anything which is hurtful, aggressive , inflammatory or lacking respect. We will not always agree with each other but we can learn to disagree with courtesy.
If we think something is wrong we can point that out, but do so using language that is respectful.
We are all learning:
Be careful in sharing content :
Is it suitable to share on a family friendly forum?
Is the source reliable?
Do not share stories about other members unless with their permission.
Do not reveal personal details about another member.
If you have any concern about a post use the ‘Report’ button. This will flag it up to a member of the forum staff who will assess the post. The staff would rather have posts reported that don’t warrant any further action than for an inappropriate post not to be reported.
Be very careful about arranging to meet other forum members. We do get to know each other in real life, but the safest way for initial meetings is at a forum meet.
Forum meet arrangements will be made in the public forum.
We can be anyone we want to be behind the facade of social media.
Online safety is everyone’s responsibility. The forum staff do a wonderful job at picking up spammers and inappropriate posts, but they are all volunteers with other commitments and cannot keep track of every post on the forum.
Help keep the forum a safe and family friendly place where every person is valued and treated with respect.
COMPLIANCE
In order to comply with the stricter rulings regarding illegal and harmful content, the forum staff have decided to enforce an 18+ membership policy very strictly.
DMs have been disabled so that all Forum messaging has to be open and public.
There is a ‘Contact Us’ link at the bottom of the Forum page should anyone need to make contact more privately.
Legitimate contacts can then be passed on, or dealt with as appropriate.
We will take all possible measures to ensure that no offence under the Act is committed on the Forum.
We will take all possible measures to ensure no illegal content under the Act is posted.
We will take all possible measures to protect children, women and vulnerable users, as defined by the Act.
We will take all possible measures to ensure that links to outside websites over which we have no control are vetted or avoided.
The Forum has appointed new moderators to help the existing staff deal with the extra work.
Below is the link to the UK Government website and extracts from the Act to clarify what is meant by criminal and illegal content.
Welcome to GOV.UK
The criminal offences introduced by the Act came into effect on 31 January 2024. These offences cover:
* encouraging or assisting serious self-harm
* cyberflashing
* sending false information intended to cause non-trivial harm
* threatening communications
* intimate image abuse
* epilepsy trolling
Please note; These new offences apply directly to the individuals sending them, and convictions have already been made under the cyberflashing and threatening communications offences.
The kinds of illegal content and activity that we need to protect users from are set out in the Act, and this includes content relating to:
* child sexual abuse
* controlling or coercive behaviour
* extreme sexual violence
* extreme pornography
* fraud
* racially or religiously aggravated public order offences
* inciting violence
* illegal immigration and people smuggling
* promoting or facilitating suicide
* intimate image abuse
* selling illegal drugs or weapons
* sexual exploitation
* terrorism
The Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) is a new set of laws that protects children and adults online. It puts a range of new duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for their users’ safety on their platforms. The Act requires the forum to implement systems and processes to reduce risks that it is used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content when it does appear.
The strongest protections in the Act have been designed for children. We will be required to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content and provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online when they do arise.
The Act will also protect adult users, ensuring that we will need to be more transparent about which kinds of potentially harmful content we allow, and give members more control over the types of content they want to see.
Ofcom is the independent regulator of Online Safety. It will set out steps we can take to fulfil their safety duties in codes of practice. It has a broad range of powers to assess and enforce our compliance with the framework.
Our safety duties are proportionate to factors including the risk of harm to individuals, and the size and capacity of the forum. This makes sure that while safety measures will need to be put in place across the board, as a small forum with limited functionality, we aren't required to take the same actions as the largest corporations, however, we still have to comply.
Ofcom is required to take users’ rights into account when setting out steps to take. We have simultaneous duties to pay particular regard to users’ rights when fulfilling our safety duties.
The aim of the Guinea Pig Forum is to provide a safe place where every person is welcome and respected. It is a place where we can celebrate everything piggy related and learn together, so that our beloved piggies have the best possible lives. It is a place to have fun and find support.
In order to achieve this, we need to comply with the new Online Safety Act and accept that we all share the responsibility.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
Always conduct yourself the same way on the internet as you would face to face. Be aware of what you say and how you say it, as well as how it could be interpreted. Try not to use abbreviations, as these can sometimes be misconstrued or misunderstood.
Remember that English is not the first language for every member and some members come from a pre-digital age.
Never provide personal details of yourself.
Do not share anything you don’t want the whole world to know - this is a public forum.
Do not post anything which is hurtful, aggressive , inflammatory or lacking respect. We will not always agree with each other but we can learn to disagree with courtesy.
If we think something is wrong we can point that out, but do so using language that is respectful.
We are all learning:
Be careful in sharing content :
Is it suitable to share on a family friendly forum?
Is the source reliable?
Do not share stories about other members unless with their permission.
Do not reveal personal details about another member.
If you have any concern about a post use the ‘Report’ button. This will flag it up to a member of the forum staff who will assess the post. The staff would rather have posts reported that don’t warrant any further action than for an inappropriate post not to be reported.
Be very careful about arranging to meet other forum members. We do get to know each other in real life, but the safest way for initial meetings is at a forum meet.
Forum meet arrangements will be made in the public forum.
We can be anyone we want to be behind the facade of social media.
Online safety is everyone’s responsibility. The forum staff do a wonderful job at picking up spammers and inappropriate posts, but they are all volunteers with other commitments and cannot keep track of every post on the forum.
Help keep the forum a safe and family friendly place where every person is valued and treated with respect.
COMPLIANCE
In order to comply with the stricter rulings regarding illegal and harmful content, the forum staff have decided to enforce an 18+ membership policy very strictly.
DMs have been disabled so that all Forum messaging has to be open and public.
There is a ‘Contact Us’ link at the bottom of the Forum page should anyone need to make contact more privately.
Legitimate contacts can then be passed on, or dealt with as appropriate.
We will take all possible measures to ensure that no offence under the Act is committed on the Forum.
We will take all possible measures to ensure no illegal content under the Act is posted.
We will take all possible measures to protect children, women and vulnerable users, as defined by the Act.
We will take all possible measures to ensure that links to outside websites over which we have no control are vetted or avoided.
The Forum has appointed new moderators to help the existing staff deal with the extra work.
Below is the link to the UK Government website and extracts from the Act to clarify what is meant by criminal and illegal content.
Welcome to GOV.UK
The criminal offences introduced by the Act came into effect on 31 January 2024. These offences cover:
* encouraging or assisting serious self-harm
* cyberflashing
* sending false information intended to cause non-trivial harm
* threatening communications
* intimate image abuse
* epilepsy trolling
Please note; These new offences apply directly to the individuals sending them, and convictions have already been made under the cyberflashing and threatening communications offences.
The kinds of illegal content and activity that we need to protect users from are set out in the Act, and this includes content relating to:
* child sexual abuse
* controlling or coercive behaviour
* extreme sexual violence
* extreme pornography
* fraud
* racially or religiously aggravated public order offences
* inciting violence
* illegal immigration and people smuggling
* promoting or facilitating suicide
* intimate image abuse
* selling illegal drugs or weapons
* sexual exploitation
* terrorism