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The UK Online Safety Act 2023 is a sweeping law designed to regulate online platforms, requiring them to proactively protect children and adults from illegal content, terrorism, fraud, and material harmful to minors. Regulated by Ofcom, the legislation imposes strict age assurance checks, risk assessments, and duties on technology companies under threat of heavy fines. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Core Requirements for Platforms
The Act shifts compliance from a reactive "notice and takedown" model to a proactive duty of care. Obligations vary depending on a platform's size and reach:
• Illegal Content Duties: All service providers must assess and minimize the risk of users encountering illegal materials (e.g., terrorism, child sexual abuse material) and clamp down on fraudulent advertising.
• Protecting Children: Sites likely to be accessed by children must implement highly effective age verification technologies to block access to age-inappropriate and harmful content.
• Adult Safety: Major platforms must offer adult users enhanced transparency and greater control over the types of potentially harmful content they see. [1]
Enforcement and Penalties
The Act is enforced by Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator. Failure to comply with the legislation's duties carries severe consequences, including:
• Financial Penalties: Fines can reach up to £18 million or 10% of a company's global annual revenue, whichever is higher.
• Service Restriction: Courts possess the power to block access to non-compliant services within the UK.
• Executive Liability: Senior management faces potential criminal liability for non-compliance with specific information and reporting requirements. [5, 7]
Implementation and Debate
Because of the breadth and technical difficulty of assessing millions of internet users, Ofcom utilizes a phased approach to bring the Act's codes of practice into full force. [3, 7]
While the UK government states the intention is to make the UK the "safest place in the world to be online", the legislation has faced fierce criticism from digital rights groups. Privacy advocates argue that strict age-verification mandates compromise user anonymity and that the requirements to monitor communications threaten to break end-to-end encryption protocols. [5, 6, 7, 8]
For official updates, guidance documents, and regulatory timelines, you can review the full Online Safety Act 2023 Explainer published by the UK government. [8, 9]
AI response
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer
[2] https://www.techpolicy.press/tracker/online-safety-act-2023/
[3] https://www.hunton.com/privacy-and-cybersecurity-law-blog/uk-online-safety-act-becomes-law
[4] https://www.lw.com/admin/upload/SiteAttachments/UK-Online-Safety-Act-2023.pdf
[5] https://itif.org/publications/2025/06/09/uk-online-safety-act/
[6] https://www.linklaters.com/insights/blogs/digilinks/2025/september/uk-the-online-safety-act-2023-the-landscape-two-years-on
[7] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/no-uks-online-safety-act-doesnt-make-children-safer-online
[8] https://www.wsgr.com/a/web/vExo8JtW6yDSp7K3qt6qzX/online-safety-act.pdf
[9] https://www.moneysupermarket.com/news/guide-to-the-online-safety-act/