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UK OSA · UK-OSA-S21-USER-SAFETY

UK OSA Section 15 - User empowerment duties (Category 1 user-to-user services)

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

MEDIUMRequirementUser rightsBinding regulationIn forceApplies from 10 January 2024

Where this comes from

Provision: Section 15 - User empowerment duties (Category 1 user-to-user services)

Instrument: UK Online Safety Act 2023

Citation: Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, s 15 (with s 14, assessment, and s 16, interpretation); s 95 and Sch 11 (Category 1 designation)

Text version: Online Safety Act 2023 c. 50, revised text as displayed on legislation.gov.uk on 2026-09-21 ('up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 21 September 2026'), including the amendments made by the Crime and Policing Act 2026 in force from 29 June 2026 (S.I. 2026/689) and s 66 in force from 7 April 2026 (S.I. 2026/262). The as-enacted text is superseded.

Read the official text ↗

Who it applies to

It applies when all of these are true:

  • Service allows user-generated content
  • Service uses recommendation algorithms

What engineering work it implies

Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:

  • Adult users can increase or reduce the likelihood of encountering the specified categories of content
  • The controls cover filtering of the specified content types and are easy to find and apply
  • Users can choose to prioritise content from verified sources / reduce unverified content
  • Control settings persist and take effect immediately
  • System handles null/empty input gracefully (no 500 errors)

Questions people ask

Does UK OSA Section 15 - User empowerment duties (Category 1 user-to-user services) apply to my service?
It applies when Service allows user-generated content; Service uses recommendation algorithms.
From when does this apply?
UK OSA Section 15 - User empowerment duties (Category 1 user-to-user services) applies from 10 January 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.

Run the pre-scanAll UK OSA obligations

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