UK Online Safety Act 2023

Use highly effective age assurance technology to determine whether users are children, considering proportionality and Ofcom guidance

Section 12(6)-(8), Ofcom Guidance on Age Assurance · Read the full page →

Services likely to be accessed by children must use proportionate and effective age assurance measures compliant with Ofcom standards for accuracy, privacy, and accessibility

Part 5, Section 60 — Age verification and age estimation standards · Read the full page →

Assess and mitigate the risk that algorithmic systems including recommendations, auto-play, and trending features amplify harmful content to children

Section 12(9)-(10), Ofcom Children's Safety Codes of Practice · Read the full page →

Operate accessible complaints and appeals procedures covering safety duty compliance and content moderation decisions, with outcome notifications

Sections 20, 26 — Complaints procedures and appeals · Read the full page →

Be transparent about content moderation systems, including automated tools, human review, decision criteria, and moderation volumes, and inform users of automated decisions

Sections 13, 64, 66 — Content moderation transparency duties · Read the full page →

Ofcom can impose penalties up to £18M or 10% of global revenue and pursue business disruption measures; services must cooperate with investigations

Part 7, Sections 130-143 — Ofcom enforcement powers · Read the full page →

Operate proportionate systems to prevent users encountering priority illegal content and minimise the time any illegal content remains on the service

Sections 9-10 — Illegal content safety duties · Read the full page →

Services must proactively address priority categories of illegal content including CSAM, terrorism, fraud, drugs, weapons, immigration offences, and sexual exploitation

Schedule 6 — Priority categories of illegal content · Read the full page →

Comply with Ofcom codes of practice as the recommended means of satisfying statutory duties, or face penalties of up to 10% of worldwide revenue

Sections 41-49 — Ofcom codes of practice and enforcement powers · Read the full page →

Provide easy-to-find, easy-to-use reporting mechanisms appropriate for child users to report harmful content, with a complaints procedure

Section 12(5), Ofcom Children's Safety Codes of Practice · Read the full page →

Category 1 services must facilitate researcher access to data for online safety research as directed by Ofcom, subject to safeguards and conditions

Section 146 — Researcher access to data · Read the full page →

Conduct a suitable and sufficient children's risk assessment evaluating the risk of harm from primary priority, priority, and other harmful content

Section 11 — Children's risk assessment duties · Read the full page →

Operate proportionate systems to mitigate and manage risks from other content harmful to children that falls outside the primary priority and priority content tiers

Section 12(4) — Duties regarding other content harmful to children · Read the full page →

Operate proportionate systems to prevent children of any age from encountering primary priority harmful content including pornography, self-harm, suicide, and eating disorder content

Section 12(2) — Duties to prevent children encountering primary priority content · Read the full page →

Operate proportionate systems to mitigate and manage the risks of priority harmful content reaching children, with enhanced protections for higher-risk age groups

Section 12(3) — Duties to mitigate and manage risks from priority content · Read the full page →

Publish a clear, accessible, and prominent statement in the terms of service explaining children's safety measures, and consistently apply those stated policies

Section 13 — Children's online safety: transparency and accountability · Read the full page →

Conduct a children's access assessment to determine whether the service is likely to be accessed by children, considering user base, design, and content

Sections 35–37 — Children's access assessments; Schedule 3, Part 1 · Read the full page →

Provide user empowerment features allowing adult users to increase or reduce their likelihood of encountering specified content types

Section 21 — User-to-user services: duties about user empowerment · Read the full page →

Make and keep written records of all risk assessments and compliance steps, review compliance regularly, and be able to provide records to Ofcom on request

Section 28 — Record-keeping and review duties · Read the full page →

Produce and publish annual transparency reports as directed by Ofcom, covering content moderation, safety measures, and complaint outcomes

Section 64 — Transparency reports · Read the full page →

Category 1 services must protect content of democratic importance and have particular regard to free expression when making content moderation decisions about political and public interest content

Section 72 — Duties about democratic content (Category 1 services) · Read the full page →

Include clear terms of service provisions covering prohibited content, enforcement actions, and appeals, and apply them consistently

Section 66 — Duties about terms of service (all regulated services) · Read the full page →

Provide children and parents with safety management tools including parental controls, content filters, contact management, and usage tools

Section 15 — User empowerment duties (children's safety) · Read the full page →