Campaigners have criticized Ofcom for not taking action sooner. The Molly Rose Foundation’s CEO Andy Burrows welcomed the fine but said the process “has taken an interminable amount of time.”
“Molly Rose Foundation submitted detailed evidence which showed scores of vulnerable young people remained at risk while Ofcom’s investigation dragged on. Further lives were lost during this period,” he said.
Seven months ago the Molly Rose Foundation in conjunction with Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harms published a report accusing both the government and the regulator of dragging their feet and warned that even if Ofcom sought to block U.K. access to the site, this would amount to little more than “regulatory whack-a-mole” in the absence of improved legislation.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We share the urgency about the extreme harms that sites such as this can cause, and understand the anger felt towards them by those who have been so personally affected. Today we’ve made clear that this provider has failed – and continues to fail – to comply with its duties. Our investigation into this forum was the first to be launched under the Online Safety Act straight after it came into force. It is vital that we ensure our enforcement action is thorough, and this can take time, as is the case for any enforcement agency.”