The Annual Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) Conference has always been a reliable source of high quality speakers, interesting topics of discussion, and a place to catch up with many of the key personalities of online safety. 2022 was no exception.
The Intercontinental hotel in the revitalised Wharf precinct of Washington DC provided the perfect location for the first conference able to be held in person since 2019.
Video recordings of the plenary sessions are made available on the FOSI YouTube channel. FOSI deliberately allows considerable time during the programme for delegates to connect and have the conversations they want to have.
People were clearly keen to take the opportunity. There is an increasing feeling of solidarity within the trust and safety community. It is clear that many people value the opportunity to be together and to be united by their online safety responsibilities and values – regardless of what sector they are currently employed in.
This has also been reflected in the growing interest in the All Tech is Human community whose similarly energised Washington DC mixer event was held the evening before the conference.
Twitter was the elephant that was not in the room. Former members of its trust and safety team were highly respected and valued members of the online safety community and their absence was keenly felt. There are mixed views on how the new Twitter might navigate the immediate future which I’ve covered in a separate blog.
Regulation efforts are surging across the US, and around the world. There is considerable cynicism about how effective many of these efforts will be in actually improving safety outcomes. However, many also welcome this as a sign of Governments awakening to the issues of safety online.
In a move to encourage and coordinate efforts in this area, regulators from Australia, Fiji, Ireland and the United Kingdom launched the Global Online Safety Regulators Network at the conference.
There is a noticeable increase in specialised technological Trust and Safety service providers. Organisations like Spectrum Labs and Modulate are now building the sort of safety technology that used to be the exclusive domain of a handful of the largest tech platforms. Technology that can recognise and analyse harmful content and behaviours can increasingly be purchased as working solutions. This should give small and emerging UGC platforms access to high quality safety services.
More information about the conference can be found at the FOSI website.
