You Are What You Swallow

It’s unlikely you’d buy a supermarket lasagne without looking at the label, maybe not for the fat content but definitely the best before.

You might check what’s in it. How much salt. How much sugar. Where it was made. Whether it contains something you’re allergic to.

Yet every day, most of us consume vast quantities of something far more complicated, influential and potentially toxic, with remarkably little information about what’s actually about to be consumed.

The internet.

That is the thinking behind a confronting new London billboard unveiled today as part of the inaugural Online Responsibility Day, organised by the nonprofit Online Responsibility Network (ORN).

The creative puts internet consumption in the same frame as the food we buy in our weekly shop, complete with warning-label thinking. Its message is deliberately simple: you wouldn’t consume it without knowing what it’s made from, or if it’s safe to swallow. Why should the internet be any different?

And that is a question worth asking.

Trust shouldn't be hidden in the small print

The internet in all its forms has become an extraordinary part of everyday life. We use it to work, shop, communicate, learn, entertainment and education.

But the mechanisms behind what we see, who sees it, how it is distributed and what happens when things go horribly wrong are opaque.

The ORN's research clearly points to consumers wanting significantly more transparency. A staggering 80% of Brits surveyed said they support food-style warning labels on websites and apps carrying misinformation, while 75% support an online safety trust mark.

The new Online Safety Trust Mark is designed to give consumers a signal to look for.

Rather than telling people which platforms to use, the intention is to make it easier to understand which brands and platforms are actively taking responsibility for online safety, transparency and accountability.

That feels like a sensible direction. The internet is not going away. Nor would we want it to. The challenge is making the environment we have built around it more easily understandable and accountable.

From Adland world to the wider internet

For Blutui, this partnership feels particularly relevant.

We have spent years working inside and helping to build the machinery of the web. We know that what people experience on screen is only the visible layer. Behind it sits an extraordinary amount of technology, infrastructure, data, content, code, platforms and processes.

And as AI accelerates the production of digital content, websites and experiences, that complexity is only increasing.

More can be produced, faster than ever and that is exciting. But It also makes questions of responsibility, provenance, transparency and trust increasingly important.

Graeme Blake, Founder and CEO of Blutui, said:

“The internet has become the most powerful publishing and communications environment the world has ever created, but we have never really developed the equivalent safeguards of the food label for what we consume online.
“The technology is incredible, as were nuclear energy, automotive machines, medicines of their time but the requisite safeguards have been slow to arrive and difficulty to police. What matters now is how we use it, and how much responsibility we build into the systems around it.
“For Blutui, partnering with ORN is about supporting a more transparent and accountable internet. We believe the agencies building digital experiences have a role to play in creating an environment where trust is amplified, rather than something users have to go searching for themselves.”

A trust mark for a world of infinite content

There is an important distinction here.

This is not about imposing a ‘Nanny State’ approach, trying to dictate what people should believe, what they should follow or which platforms they should subscribe to. It is about giving people more information with which to make those decisions themselves.

That becomes particularly important as the internet moves into an era where AI can generate extraordinary volumes of believable content, imagery, websites and information at a speed no human editorial system can realistically match.

The question is no longer simply whether something can be published.

It is whether we can build enough transparency around the systems publishing it for people to make informed choices about what they consume.

The ORN's three simple checks for Online Responsibility Day provide a useful starting point:

Check your accounts. Review privacy settings, security tools and who can access or contact you.

Check your feed. Consider what you are consuming, who created it, whether it is accurate and whether it is appropriate for you or your family.

Check the platforms you use. Look for evidence that the platforms you rely on take safety, transparency and accountability seriously.

None of these require people to become technology experts.

That is the point.

The label on the pack

We have become accustomed to expecting transparency from the physical things we consume.

We know ingredients should be listed. We expect products to carry safety information. We look for ratings, provenance, certifications and standards.

The digital world has largely evolved without the same expectation and it is time that changed.

At Blutui, we believe technology should enable people and the organisations serving them, not make them work harder to understand the machinery underneath. Our partnership with ORN is yet another expression of that belief.

Because the internet is becoming increasingly powerful, increasingly automated and increasingly embedded in everyday life.

And if we are going to keep consuming it, perhaps we should start paying a little more attention to what we’re expected to digest.

You are what you swallow.

About Online Responsibility Network

Online Responsibility Network (ORN) is an independent network dedicated to improving safety, accountability and transparency in online spaces. ORN facilitates discussion and supports organisations navigating the changing online world, helping drive safer online engagement between brands and their consumers. Thursday September 24th marks the UK launch of the Online Responsibility Network mark and campaign, which is marked by partner organisations lighting up their workplace purple.