UK OSA Section 13 — Children's online safety: transparency and accountability
Publish a clear, accessible, and prominent statement in the terms of service explaining children's safety measures, and consistently apply those stated policies
Where this comes from
Provision: Section 13 — Children's online safety: transparency and accountability
Instrument: UK Online Safety Act 2023
Citation: Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, Section 13; Ofcom Children's Safety Codes of Practice (December 2024), Chapter 10 (Transparency)
Text version: Online Safety Act 2023 c. 50, as enacted (legislation.gov.uk)
Who it applies to
Child audience (designed for OR likely accessed by children) — any one of these:
- Service is specifically designed for children under 18
- Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Disclosure is accessible within 2 clicks from main navigation
- Content is written at appropriate reading level (8th grade for general, lower for kids)
- Disclosure includes: what data is collected, why, how long kept, who it's shared with
- Last updated date is visible on the disclosure
- Disclosure is available in all languages the product supports
Questions people ask
- Does UK OSA Section 13 — Children's online safety: transparency and accountability apply to my service?
- It applies when at least one of: Service is specifically designed for children under 18; Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18.
- From when does this apply?
- UK OSA Section 13 — Children's online safety: transparency and accountability 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.