Following in Australia’s footsteps, policymakers around the world have been introducing their own age-based social media restrictions. Given the limitations of an outright ban, legislation should instead focus on making platforms safer by design, tackling both functionality and harmful content.
Regulatory sandboxes are becoming essential tools for policymakers to balance oversight of, and innovation in, new technologies. We explore key examples and global best practices in the use of sandboxes across tech and telecoms in privacy, spectrum, satellite and AI.
AI is being rapidly adopted across the customer journey, presenting both opportunities and risks. As regulators increasingly engage with the potential impacts of the technology, they must strike an effective balance between mitigating harms and promoting responsible innovation.
While consumer experiences of mobile coverage often fail to live up to what is promised, regulators have been slow to adopt the most effective testing and reporting practices. They should prioritise the most accurate testing methods despite their additional costs, with Arcep’s approach in France one to follow.
With the US Government intending to withhold significant funds under its federal rural broadband expansion programme, the country will gamble with the affordability and longevity of what was billed as a generational investment in connectivity. We tell a cautionary tale for other jurisdictions considering a reshuffle of their public broadband investments.
In recent years, policymakers in Australia have developed a self-styled reputation for developing a world-leading regulatory playbook for tech and telecoms. So far this effort has had mixed success in challenging the more famous ‘Brussels Effect’ for influence over regulation further afield.
Policymakers have called for pro-growth regulation, but what should this look like in practice for the telecoms sector? We analyse past approaches and consider if and/or how they might be reframed and reapplied for modern times through government interventions or regulatory reforms.
This year Ofcom begins its enforcement of the Online Safety Act – legislation that is unique in both its depth and flexibility. These two characteristics will also make the success of the framework ultimately dependent on the capability and capacity of the regulator charged with its implementation.
Regulation for AI has typically not addressed the copyright issues that arise from the training and development of models. Greater legislative clarity and balance is needed to offer stronger protections than currently available for creators while still supporting the growth of AI.
As regulators take on similar new statutory duties for online safety, the staff and budgets at their disposal vary greatly. Despite not benefiting from the EC, we find Ofcom to be as equipped, if not more so, when compared to its European counterparts.
