Ofcom has today published our review of Audience Protection Measures alongside commissioned research exploring how audiences perceive these measures.
As part of changes made by the Media Act 2024, Ofcom has a new duty to assess whether current audience protection measures (“APMs”), on On-Demand Programme Services (“ODPS”) such as Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, are adequate to help protect audiences from harm.
APMs include age ratings, content warnings, parental controls and age assurance.
In summary, through our review, we found:
- Widespread adoption. ODPS are using APMs where necessary and in ways we considered broadly adequate to protect audiences from harm.
- Different approaches. A range of different approaches are being adopted for age ratings and classification tools, as well as for content warnings, which reflect the range of types of ODPS that exist.
- Some adaptation for UK audiences. Proactive steps have been taken by some global providers to adapt their content classification approach to align with UK audience expectations.
- Content warnings could be more detailed, as audiences want them to be specific, accurate, and easy to understand.
- Lack of information. Services could provide more information as to how viewers can find and use the protection tools available to them.
- Viewers like parental controls and PINs, but these tools are not always working consistently across different devices.
- Need for proportionality. Audiences want protection measures that are proportionate to the risk of harm and do not create unnecessary friction in their viewing experience, or intrude on data privacy.
We will carry out a further review in due course of APMs used by Tier 1 services after regulations have been made by the Secretary of State to determine which services are subject to enhanced regulation under the new Tier 1 regime.
We are also publishing today independent audience research that we commissioned to capture and understand audience views around APMs on the on-demand services they use.