About this article
What are we talking about here? Ofcom recently conducted a study to find out whether consumers read terms and conditions and, if not, what organisations could do to improve engagement. This study followed another study conducted last year to check how readable video-sharing platforms’ user policies are.
In this article, we look at the key findings from the two studies and what you can do to improve engagement on your terms.
Why is this important? When consumers read and understand your terms and conditions, they are more likely to comply with them. In addition, they are less likely to complain about goods and services when they know their rights and obligations.
Do you need more background information? Terms and Conditions are the contract between service providers and their users, which (should):
- establish the rules for using a product or service and the consequences of violating those rules,
- provide consumers with clarity about what they can expect when using a product so that they can make informed decisions about the services available, and
- cover other important areas relevant to the service provider. Take, for example, the provisions on online safety: user reports, appeals and content moderation can only work in practice if the T&Cs set out clear rules on what is and is not allowed.
What is the problem? Ofcom research shows that many users of online platforms do not read terms and conditions and, even when they do, do not always understand them.
Study No. 1: User Guidelines for Video Sharing Platforms
What are the findings? After reviewing various terms and conditions of video sharing platforms, Ofcom found, among other things, the following:
- Users need advanced reading skills to understand VSPs’ terms and conditions, which means they are not suitable for many users, especially children.
- The conditions of the VSPs are not clear when they make exceptions to their rules,
- Users are unlikely to understand the consequences and potential penalties for violating the VSP rules, and
- While some VSPs are taking innovative approaches to updating and reviewing their moderator guidance and terms and conditions, others could do more to ensure their processes are proactive and forward-looking.
What are the measures? Based on these findings, Ofcom stressed that providers need to do more to make their terms and conditions significantly more accessible and take steps to help users better understand terms and conditions and find important information more easily.
Study No. 2: Social Media Terms and Conditions
What are the findings? Ofcom also conducted research into social media terms and conditions to better understand users’ relationship with them, particularly community guidelines. It tested behavioural techniques to first get users to engage with the terms and conditions and then measured how this affected a user’s subsequent behaviour and interaction with content. The result:
- The prompt was the only effective way to get users to click to read the Community Guidelines. Overall, participants who were shown a prompt were significantly more likely to click on the Community Guidelines than those who were only shown a message upon signing up.
- The prompts also improved users’ recall of the platform rules, but users did not understand these rules better. This could be because users did not read the information initially or quickly forgot it, but suggests that further strategies may be needed to ensure deeper understanding and compliance with the T&Cs.
What are the measures? It may be useful to encourage users to engage with the Terms and Conditions documents at different times, and not just at sign-up. However, even after being prompted, many users choose not to access the documents. This suggests that service providers also need to focus on the context in which prompts are delivered, how and when, for them to be effective.
What studying means for you
How can you improve your conditions? You can improve your conditions by using the following techniques:
- Make sure users can easily find and access them on your website/platform.
- Apply principles of plain language so that they can be understood by as many users as possible, including children and people who do not have advanced reading skills,
- Explore techniques to measure and improve user engagement and understanding,
- to explain important or complex terms and to illustrate them with examples,
- clearly list all possible actions that could be taken against a user if he or she violates the rules,
- Proactively and regularly review your terms and conditions and create a process to easily update them based on feedback and experiences in dealing with customers.
- To communicate changes to the Terms and Conditions to the relevant teams promptly and
- Continue to test the effectiveness of your terms and conditions regularly.
Do you need help? If you’re not sure where to start with this list, we offer a legal drafting service for consumer, employment and commercial contracts. Contact us if you’d like to find out more.
