Governed by roles, not companies.
How OCSS (Draft 4 · pre-release) is stewarded today, and how the Adopter Council steers v2 and beyond. Seats are defined by role and category — no single vendor, and no single industry segment, owns the standard.
Stewarded toward an independent foundation.
OCSS is an open standard that Phosra does not own. As the reference implementer, Phosra holds interim editorial stewardship of the OCSS draft (Draft 4 · pre-release) while governance is transferred to an independent foundation — the steward of record and transfer status are published as a signed succession record.
Four working groups — AI Safety, Privacy, Algorithmic Transparency, and Hard Blocks — own the day-to-day evolution of their respective rule areas. Working group reviews are public and held quarterly. At ratification, governance authority transfers to the Adopter Council.
“Every seat in OCSS governance is defined by a role and a category — never by a named company. The standard is owned by no one vendor, and no single industry segment can dominate it.”
The canonical spec lives at openchildsafety.com
Semver for safety standards.
Semver. Minor versions ship clarifications and additive rules. Major versions ship breaking changes.
18-month deprecation window. Any rule marked for removal must remain valid for at least 18 months after the deprecation announcement.
Guaranteed v(N)/v(N+1) overlap. Every adopter has a guaranteed reading of both the prior major version and the next, so migration is never forced.
Council ratifies majors. A governance committee elected from the Tier 1+ adopter pool approves every major version before publication.
RFC-first. Every change — minor or major — is published as an RFC at least 30 days before adoption.
Four groups, one rule area each.
Working group seats are open to Tier 2+ adopters. Apply by emailing [email protected].
AI Safety
AI chatbot tier gates, simulated companionship limits, risk-scale enforcement.
- Chair
- Open seat — apply
- Join
- Tier 2+ adopters apply via [email protected]
Privacy
Data minimization, retention, deletion rights, commercial-data bans for minors.
- Chair
- Open seat — apply
- Join
- Tier 2+ adopters apply via [email protected]
Algorithmic Transparency
Recommender audits, dark-pattern interventions, explainability requirements.
- Chair
- Open seat — apply
- Join
- Tier 2+ adopters apply via [email protected]
Hard Blocks
Mandatory blocks for prohibited content and apps — including coalition-curated Not-for-Kids lists.
- Chair
- Open seat — apply
- Join
- Tier 2+ adopters apply via [email protected]
Nine seats, two-year terms, elected from the Tier 1+ pool.
The Adopter Council is a 9-seat body, elected for 2-year terms from the Tier 1+ adopter pool. Seats are reserved by category to ensure no single industry segment dominates. The Council ratifies every major version of OCSS and approves the conformance suite.
How a change becomes part of the spec.
- Anyone can file. File an RFC at github.com/phosra-spec/pcss. No tier required to open the conversation.
- Tier 2+ adopters propose. Formal proposals — those that move beyond a discussion thread — must be sponsored by a Tier 2+ adopter. The relevant working group reviews and recommends.
- Council ratifies majors. Major changes go to the Adopter Council for ratification. Minor changes ship after working-group sign-off and the 30-day RFC window.
Governed by roles, not companies.
OCSS is owned by no one vendor. Working group seats and Adopter Council categories are open — adopt the standard, then help write the next version.