On 26th October 2023, The Online Safety Act 2023 became law.

The Act has been heralded as a bold piece of legislation. 

The Act enshrines a number of statutory duties and places various obligations on regulated service providers.

The Act aims to protect children by ensuring that the regulated service providers will; 

• remove illegal content quickly or prevent it from appearing. 

• prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content. 

• enforce age limits on content. 

• ensure social media platforms are more transparent about the risks posed to children on their sites. 

• provide parents and children with clear ways to report problems online. 

The government has also said that the Act provides three layers of protection by: 

• ensuring illegal content is removed. 

• enforcing promises made by social media platforms to users. 

• offering users the option to filter content. 

The legislation will be enforced by Ofcom who will have the remit to issue fines up to £18 million or 10% of the service provider’s global annual revenue. 

At present, Ofcom are still developing their guidance and codes of practice for the service providers. 

It remains to be seen in practice how arguments regarding freedom of expression on the one part and the statutory requirements set out within the Act on the other part will be balanced, but it is likely that the latter will take precedence. 

Should you have any queries on this developing area of the law, please do not hesitate to contact Darragh Carney or another member of our media team.