Rachel O’Connell

Chief Safety Officer, Technical standards, Age Assurance, Complianve @TrustElevate

United KingdomPartnerStartup FounderC-level ExecutiveConsultingCSOAdvisorAssociateAssociate Partner

Global Leadership in Child Online Safety: - Technical Standards: Authored and contributed to industry-leading technical standards, including the PAS 1269 Age Checking code of practice and the OpenID Foundation’s delegated authority standard. - Policy and Legislation: Played a pivotal role in drafting key legislation and shaping regulatory frameworks for child online protection. - Cross-Functional Leadership: Served as Chief Safety Officer at Bebo, fostering collaboration and innovation among diverse teams. - Industry Collaboration: Worked closely with industry leaders, regulators, and mental health organizations to promote online safety. - Research and Education: Led pan-European research and education initiatives on internet safety, addressing emerging risks and empowering stakeholders. - Technical Innovation: Developed innovative solutions, including a patented system for secure consent verification and access control. - Global Impact: Collaborated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to ensure the inclusion of all children in online safety initiatives.

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Work Background

TrustElevate.comFounder, CEO

Jan. 2017London, United KingdomTrustElevate verifies an assertion of parental responsibility for a child, and the age of the child, which enables a parent to grant, deny or revoke consent to data processing, purchasing and access. Our Child Age Verification and Parental Consent as a Service options, enable companies handling under 16s’ data to do so in compliance with a raft of regulations including: - General Data Protection Regulation - Payments Services Directive and both KYC and AML requirements - Audiovisual Media Services Directive - e-Privacy Regulation - Online Harms regulation

TrustTiersFounder

Mar. 2017London, United KingdomA CIC set up to educate and inform the media and policymakers about what a safer internet looks like - practical, meaningful, standards-based, internationally recognised examples of what needs to underpin a safer internet. We campaign for adoption by industry of a trustworthy infrastructure for identity, and promote an increased focus on children and young people's voices in the development process.

BSITechnical Author

Jan. 2016Technical author of the identity attribute verification standard, the Pas 1296 Age Checking Code of Practice, which was published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and is now becoming an ISO standard. Rachel is a member of the BSI technical committee IST/33/5 Identity Management and Privacy Technologies and its panel IST/33/5/5 Age Assurance Standards.

TrustElevate (Consulting)Founder

Apr. 2012 - Dec. 2016TrustElevate provides consultancy services to tech companies and organisations in the following subject areas: eiD, security, technical standards, regulations, public policy. Trust Elevate was recruited by the British Standards Institute to write the PAS 1296 Age Checking code of Practice.

UKCCISChair of Age Verification Group

Jan. 2011 - Dec. 2014Chaired the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) age verification group and worked closely with the Cabinet Offices Gov.uk Verify programme. Authored papers on the topic of age verification that were submitted to the UKCISS board. Co-chaired the UKCCIS Moderation standards group that produced guidelines for moderation providers

Oxford Internet InstituteSenior Research Consultant

Feb. 2013 - Dec. 2013Head of the research programme: Effective Age Verification Techniques - Lessons to be Learnt from the Online Gambling Industry This cross-national research project focused on the operation and efficacy of age verification techniques as employed by the European online gambling industry, comparing this to practice in other industry sectors.

BeboVP AOL, Chief Security Officer,

Jul. 2006 - Jan. 2010As Chief Security Officer, Bebo VP, AOL I was involved in a number of regulatory activities including: Chairing the cross-industry group which worked with the European Commission’s Social Networking Task Force and produced the EU Safer Social Networking principles Co-chairing the UKCIS Moderation good practices group Being an active member of the US Internet Safety Technical Taskforce, the Internet Safety Advisory Council, Ireland and the Technology for Well-being Round Table, Australia My role also included: Assessing new products and platforms from safety, policy, and legal perspectives Monitoring the regulatory environment in each market and advising the internal teams accordingly. Supporting the abuse management team to develop policies, procedures, protocols and a high quality customer service. Assessing and acquiring various security and filtering software products for the business Working closely with the crisis communications team to address a range of issues. Establishing Bebo as an industry leader for online safety and promoting Bebo’s reputation through the demonstration of responsible business practices. Under my watch Bebo was a runner up in the security category of the Nominet 2007 awards http://tinyurl.com/yllunyd Managing relationships with law enforcement agencies in each of Bebo’s markets. Pioneering and establishing the Bebo BeWell platform to support mental health, social care and support organisations with a view to signposting their services to the Bebo community. The goal was to empower young people with the knowledge to identify possible risks to their personal safety and well-being and to seek appropriate help in order to minimise those risks online.

Cyberspace Research Unit,Founder

Sep. 1999 - May. 2006Key Responsibilities: Set up the Cyberspace Research Unit, which operated as the UK National node for Internet Safety; • Conducted research on behalf of British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta); • Partnered with Ofcom, who supported the Cyberspace Research Unit’s bid for funding from the European Commission and promoted the work of the National Awareness Node; • Chaired the Public Awareness sub-group of the Home Office Taskforce for Child Protection on the Internet; • Advisor to the Council of Europe's, Specialist Media and Communications policy group • Regularly organised and presented at conferences and seminars, participated in or chaired multi-stakeholder policy groups; • Developed and delivered a number of new modules on the undergraduate courses offered by the Department for Forensic and Investigative Science; • Completed Ph. D.

COPINE project UCCLead Researcher

Jan. 1996 - Dec. 1999Project manager, data analyst, report writer