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UK OSA · UK-OSA-ILLEGAL-CONTENT

UK OSA Sections 9-10 — Illegal content safety duties

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

CRITICALRequirementGovernanceBinding regulationIn forceApplies from 26 October 2023

Where this comes from

Provision: Sections 9-10 — Illegal content safety duties

Instrument: UK Online Safety Act 2023

Citation: Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, Sections 9-10; Schedule 6 (Priority offences); Ofcom Illegal Content Codes of Practice (December 2024)

Text version: Online Safety Act 2023 c. 50, as enacted (legislation.gov.uk)

Read the official text ↗

Who it applies to

User-to-user content surface — any one of these:

  • Service allows user-generated content
  • Service enables direct messaging between users

What engineering work it implies

Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:

  • Content can be flagged (by users and/or automated classifiers) and enters a moderation queue
  • Moderation decisions (allow / remove / restrict / escalate) are recorded with reviewer, reason, and timestamp
  • Priority/expedited handling exists for illegal content and child-safety categories
  • Affected users are notified of moderation actions with a stated reason and appeal path
  • Repeat-offender and re-upload prevention is in place where required

Questions people ask

Does UK OSA Sections 9-10 — Illegal content safety duties apply to my service?
It applies when at least one of: Service allows user-generated content; Service enables direct messaging between users.
From when does this apply?
UK OSA Sections 9-10 — Illegal content safety duties applies from 26 October 2023. Its current status is: in force.

Find out whether this one lands on you

Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.

Run the pre-scanAll UK OSA obligations

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