Q1 Policy Roundup: AI, Social Media, Fraud, and Local Media

There’s no such thing as a quiet start to the year in tech, media and advertising policy. Over the last three months, Government, Parliament and regulators have put out statements around AI, online safety for children, advertising fraud, and local media sustainability. Here's a summary of the key developments you need to know.

Social media and children

In January, members of the House of Lords backed an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s. Support across both Houses increased pressure on the Government to consider whether further action is needed to protect children online. 

The Government responded by launching a consultation, ‘Growing up in the online world: a national conversation’, which explores a range of proposals, including a minimum age for social media, changes to the age of digital consent, restrictions on platform design features, and strengthened age assurance. The Government has not endorsed a preferred approach, meaning outcomes could range from a full ban for under-16s to more targeted interventions. The consultation closes in late May, with next steps expected in the summer. 

While the consultation focuses on broader questions about children’s use of online services, advertising is referenced in a limited context. Noting this, IAB UK will consider responding to the consultation to highlight the robust regulatory framework already in place to protect young people from age-restricted and harmful advertising across online environments. 

Fraud 

Tackling fraud remains a top priority for Government. Earlier this month, it published a new three-year strategy, backed by £250 million of investment, setting out plans to prevent, disrupt and respond to fraud. A key focus is improving coordination across organisations, as well as a strong emphasis on partnership with technology companies to tackle online fraud at scale.  

From an advertising perspective, the strategy largely reflects existing approaches. While it recognises the risks posed by advertising-related fraud, it highlights the measures already in place to address these challenges. The fraudulent advertising provisions in the Online Safety Act 2023—due to come into force in 2027—will place duties on large platforms and search services to prevent and minimise users’ exposure to scam ads. 

To address challenges in the programmatic supply chain, the Government points to the work of the Online Advertising Taskforce and the IAB UK/Home Office-chaired Ad Fraud and Standards Working Group. This group brings together buy- and sell-side stakeholders to explore how existing transparency measures can be strengthened to improve resilience against fraud. While the strategy notes that the Government “will take legislative action within this Parliament” if progress is insufficient, Ministers have expressed strong support for the Taskforce model, and we remain confident that industry can deliver meaningful solutions.  

AI and copyright 

The Government has set out next steps on its proposed changes to AI and copyright policy, which seek to balance the UK’s ambition to become an AI superpower with protecting the creative industries and other rightsholders from having their work used without consent or payment. A previous government proposal to introduce a rightsholder opt-out into UK law —which would have allowed AI models to use any UK creative work unless proactively excluded — faced overwhelming pushback from stakeholders, including the creative industries. 

As a result, the Government has confirmed this week that it will not pursue an opt-out model. Instead, it is exploring a range of more targeted solutions, including labelling of AI-generated content, input transparency mechanisms and protections against unauthorised digital replicas. 

Meanwhile, the Government will establish a Creative Content Exchange (CCE), a trusted marketplace for digitised cultural and creative assets. A pilot phase has already begun with an early adopter cohort of public institutions. 

Local Media Action Plan 

Finally, the Government published its Local Media Action Plan, which sets out the Government’s vision for the financial sustainability of local journalism.  

IAB UK engaged with DCMS when the Plan was being developed, and we’re pleased to see that many of our recommendations have been adopted, including the Government acknowledging the key role it can play in increasing local media ad spend and championing local media as a high-quality channel for commercial advertising. There’s also £12m in funding to launch a multi-year Local News Fund, which will allow local media outlets to apply for grants to invest in digital innovation and adtech tools to increase revenues from online advertising.   

The Government has also spotlighted the importance of shared standards in areas like audience measurement across the whole media ecosystem. The Government says it will support smaller online news publishers to develop these standards, which will help them compete more effectively in the ad market and qualify to carry government ads. As part of this, the Government also notes that it recently made a public commitment to become an advertiser supporter of the IAB Gold Standard, which means it will now work with Gold Standard certified supply chain partners where possible. This is a huge win for the IAB and an endorsement of the critical importance of industry standards. 

If you’d like to discuss any of the areas covered here or join our Policy and Public Affairs Community, please contact our policy team at [email protected].