UK OSA Schedule 6 — Priority categories of illegal content
Services must proactively address priority categories of illegal content including CSAM, terrorism, fraud, drugs, weapons, immigration offences, and sexual exploitation
Where this comes from
Provision: Schedule 6 — Priority categories of illegal content
Instrument: UK Online Safety Act 2023
Citation: Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, Schedule 6 (Priority offences); Part 3, Section 10 (duties about illegal content); Ofcom Codes of Practice for Illegal Content (2024-2025)
Text version: Online Safety Act 2023 c. 50, as enacted (legislation.gov.uk)
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:
- Proactive systems address each priority category (CSEA, terrorism, fraud, drugs, weapons, immigration, sexual exploitation)
- Known CSEA/terrorist media is matched against hash/URL lists and blocked at or before upload
- Detected priority illegal content is removed swiftly and, where required, reported to the relevant authority
- Detection coverage and outcomes per category are recorded for transparency reporting
- System handles null/empty input gracefully (no 500 errors)
Questions people ask
- Does UK OSA Schedule 6 — Priority categories of illegal content 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 Schedule 6 — Priority categories of illegal content applies from 16 December 2024. 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.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.