UK Online Safety Regulations and impact on Forums

chillibear said:
A procedure can be as simple as a documented manual process. I think that's all Ofcom require. Yes if you have a large forum you'd probably want the structure supplied by a software tool, but for a small well run forum where you may well never see a complaint just scribble down a few sensible steps in a document somewhere (theoretically Ofcom may request it) and I think you'll probably be good.

Pop a link in your footer and maybe privacy policy and so forth to a page outlining what people need to do to raise a complaint with your site and maybe a few details like your estimated response time and how to escalate to Ofcom if they are unhappy. That's pretty much all I'd been planning to do.
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Thanks. This was the bit where I thought it meant you needed to amend the TOS and say what you are doing to prevent illegal harms on this site (there was more detail about it elsewhere in the guidance).

ICU G1The provider's TOS must include a number of specified provisions regarding illegal content, proactive technology, and complaints.
ICU G3The terms from ICU G1 must be clearly signposted, accessible, and easily readable for the age range of the site.
 
zappaDPJ said:
Although I never want to see any AI created content on any of my forums, I would love to see AI tools developed to help run them. AI could certainly help to keep OFCOM at arms length.
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I would love to have a moderator bot :) Designed to do whatever functions you assign to it. I did google moderator bot but the only info I can find are ones for Discord only it seems.
 
I saw one forum that is putting all posts for moderation approval before they appear on the forum. I guess that is one way of doing it if you don't have enough moderators.
 
Or to mitigate against any harmful content. The one thing I got stuck on was age verification. Even a hamster site can occasionally have what could be considered an upsetting image. Eg people joined up with a sick or injured hamster and a photo can be not that great to see. Not suitable for children. A new member might not know to put that behind a spoiler type thing.

So aside from manual moderation queues of every post, it seems age verification is the only solution to me and that was unaffordable. Unless some open source project produces something.
 
Alvin63 said:
Or to mitigate against any harmful content. The one thing I got stuck on was age verification. Even a hamster site can occasionally have what could be considered an upsetting image. Eg people joined up with a sick or injured hamster and a photo can be not that great to see. Not suitable for children. A new member might not know to put that behind a spoiler type thing.

So aside from manual moderation queues of every post, it seems age verification is the only solution to me and that was unaffordable. Unless some open source project produces something.
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Well, you never know with Ofcom, but my take on that would be as long as you had a good responsive takedown procedure for images like that it wouldn't be a problem. The images themselves wouldn't be illegal and they aren't CSAM or Porn or anything. The Ofcom priority rules so far are about illegal content. This may change once they produce their Child Access stuff but that remains to be seen.

Upsetting isn't the same as illegal.
 
rogerl said:
Well, you never know with Ofcom, but my take on that would be as long as you had a good responsive takedown procedure for images like that it wouldn't be a problem. The images themselves wouldn't be illegal and they aren't CSAM or Porn or anything. The Ofcom priority rules so far are about illegal content. This may change once they produce their Child Access stuff but that remains to be seen.

Upsetting isn't the same as illegal.
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True but I've been reading through the child assessment piece ..... which is more than just the illegal harms by the look of it. So it still comes down to. Either have age verification (then you don't need to comply with the child assessment). Or comply with the child assessment (which opens a whole load more stuff to deal with). And my issue would be enough moderators as well.
 
@Alvin63 would your concerns be mostly resolved if there was an affordable form of age checking combined with an automatic triage of all new content, so that no illegal nor rule breaching content would be posted?
 
Ideally number 1 is affordable age verification software.

Number 2 would be a moderator bot! But as number 2 is unlikely, some other way of achieving moderation which doesn't mean I'd have to be online all the time or have a team of moderators (which would be difficult to achieve as most members didn't want the responsibility of moderating). I guess putting new posts in a moderation queue overnight would be an option but I would still find it burdensome to have to be around so much. Previously I was on virtually every day for 2 or 3 hours. There wasnt' a lot of moderation to do but a spammer did slip through once and post something inappropriate (a link). Luckily I was online at the time. But it could have sat there most of the day otherwise.

If all posts went into a moderator queue I think it would put people off using a forum - waiting a long time for posts and replies to appear.
 
Has anyone posted on github about age verification software? Thought someone might create some free open source type maybe?
 
Incidentally I read that it was Ondato that "Only Friends" were using for age verification (the site that's being investigaged by Ofcom for their age verification not being correct - amongst other things). Ondato say on their page that Only Friends uses their software. Near the bottom. No doubt an expensive option anyway but it seems the age set might not be 100% as well from that piece earlier about the investigation.

ondato.com

AI-Powered Age Verification Software | Ondato

Verify users’ age instantly with our AI-driven age verification software. No data storage, full compliance, and seamless user experience.
ondato.com ondato.com
 
Would these two things mostly resolve it for other people as well?
  1. Affordable Age checking.
  2. Automatic triage of new content that will stop illegal content and rule breaches.
@zappaDPJ and others.

Alvin63 said:
But as number 2 is unlikely,
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I don't think automatic content triage and moderation is unlikely at all. If there is demand for then it will be created. And if demand is so critical that XenForo sites are shuttering then surely it will manifest. As an 3rd party addon or maybe even implemented in core later down the road.

It first requires a clear formulation of what functionality is needed, which I can do. I can write up a functional design and post it as a suggestion.

Then it requires a clear show of demand. i.e. enough people will need to voice that they want or need this..
If addon developers as well as XenForo staff see a clear show of demand, then it will manifest.
 
Alpha1 said:
Would these two things mostly resolve it for other people as well?
  1. Affordable Age checking.
  2. Automatic triage of new content that will stop illegal content and rule breaches.
@zappaDPJ and others.


I don't think automatic content triage and moderation is unlikely at all. If there is demand for then it will be created. And if demand is so critical that XenForo sites are shuttering then surely it will manifest. As an 3rd party addon or maybe even implemented in core later down the road.

It first requires a clear formulation of what functionality is needed, which I can do. I can write up a functional design and post it as a suggestion.

Then it requires a clear show of demand. i.e. enough people will need to voice that they want or need this..
If addon developers as well as XenForo staff see a clear show of demand, then it will manifest.
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I prefer option 2 all day. Option 1 is a barrier to registration we don't need.

But, if 2000 posts a day are scanned by AI that might prove costly. But maybe not so much if only images are scanned.
 
Image scanning is the easy opton with Cloudflare. And free. I agree, age verification might put some people off but it depends how easy it is. And if it helps keep a site operable ......

Edit - I think people will find age verification is the norm soon on a lot of sites anyway.
 
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Alpha1 said:
I don't think automatic content triage and moderation is unlikely at all. If there is demand for then it will be created. And if demand is so critical that XenForo sites are shuttering then surely it will manifest. As an 3rd party addon or maybe even implemented in core later down the road.
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That is partly what this addon is trying to acheive

AddonsLab

Thread '[AL] Perspective API 2.x [Paid]'

AddonsLab submitted a new resource:

[AL] Perspective API 2.x - Post moderation and live feedback about post quality using Google Perspective API for XenForo 2.x

Add-On Information

This is the next version for our Perspective API add-on supporting XenForo 2.x versions.

Please visit https://www.perspectiveapi.com/ for more information regarding Google Perspective API.

This add-on integrates XenForo and Google Perspective API. The key features you get with the integration are:

  1. Support all models available in the API
  2. Per-model...
Click to expand...
  • Like

I can't get it working properly though as it brings down the forum (with I think escalating database locks) every few hours. We also hit the POA pricing from Google even at quiet times.
 
This company seems to have an AI moderation feature but I expect it's expensive. An addon, in this current scenario, needs to be reliable - not just a nice function.

Utopia AI Moderator | AI content moderation tool

Advanced AI-powered content moderation software that protects your platform from toxic content. Automated, language-agnostic, and 99% accurate.
www.utopiaanalytics.com www.utopiaanalytics.com
 
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