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Online platforms should be required to “proactively” identify and minimise the impact of paid-for scam ads under regulations aimed at protecting people on the internet, a group of MPs and peers has said.

The government’s draft Online Safety Bill currently proposes only that platforms should tackle fraudulent content that is posted or shared on their sites by users.

But a joint committee made up of members of the House of Commons and House of Lords has now put forward major changes to the bill before it goes to Parliament in 2022 and becomes law.

This includes widening its scope to include paid-for advertising, so that online providers “will be held accountable for the risks created by adverts”, according to a report released by the Joint Committee on the draft Online Safety Bill today.

As part of its evidence to the committee, the Advertising Standards Authority confirmed “from recent research that increasing concerns about scams are influencing the public’s trust in online ads”.

was also told research by Aviva has shown 87% of people want the government to introduce legislation ensuring search engines and social media platforms do not promote financial scams through advertising.

But in its evidence to the group of MPs and peers, Google disagreed, stating that advertising and financial fraud “involve a complex and highly specialised set of issues and existing rules”.

It said the implications of regulations for “legitimate competition and innovation” in the fintech sector must be considered.

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries also warned that extending the bill to paid-for ads “would not work”, while noting these ads were being looked at in separate work on online advertising being carried out by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

However, the committee concluded: “The exclusion of paid-for advertising from the scope of the Online Safety Bill would obstruct the government’s stated aim of tackling online fraud and activity that creates a risk of harm more generally. 

“Excluding paid-for advertising will leave service providers with little incentive to remove harmful adverts, and risks encouraging further proliferation of such content."

“Under our recommendations, providers will be required... to have systems and processes in place to proactively identify fraudulent content and minimise its impact on their platforms. This will include paid-for adverts.”

The committee explained it wants to see Ofcom regulate companies such as Google and Facebook on how they allow and promote ads. But regulation of advertisers themselves would continue to be carried out by the ASA – and would involve the police where there are criminal offences.

MP and committee chair Damian Collins said: “The committee were unanimous in their conclusion that we need to call time on the ‘wild west’ online. What’s illegal offline should be regulated online. 

“For too long, big tech has gotten away with being the land of the lawless. A lack of regulation online has left too many people vulnerable to abuse, fraud, violence and in some cases even loss of life.”

He added: “The committee has set out recommendations to bring more offences clearly within the scope of the Online Safety Bill, give Ofcom the power in law to set minimum safety standards for the services they will regulate, and to take enforcement action against companies if they don’t comply.”

The group of MPs and peers made about 90 recommendations in its wide-ranging report, including agreeing that content promoting self-harm should be made illegal, as should cyberflashing (the act of sending unsolicited nude photos). The government must respond to the report within two months.

The inquiry heard evidence from people affected by online harm, including the father of teenager Molly Russell, who took her own life after looking at suicide material on Instagram, and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

Earlier this year Haugen claimed in an interview with CBS that Facebook “chooses profit over safety”, following her leak of information to The Wall Street Journal.