The Online Safety Act introduces new rules for providers of online user-to-user, search and pornography services, to help keep people in the UK safe from content which is illegal in the UK, and to protect children from the most harmful content such as pornography, suicide and self-harm material.
Wherever in the world a service is based, if it has ‘links to the UK’, it now has duties to protect UK users. This includes having a significant number of UK users, or that the UK is a target market. These rules will also apply to services that are capable of being used by individuals in the UK and which pose a material risk of significant harm to them.
The Act only requires that services take action to protect users based in the UK – it does not require them to take action in relation to users based anywhere else in the world.
Ofcom believes its flexible approach to risk assessment and mitigation allows all services to take appropriate and proportionate steps to protect UK users from illegal content. Some services might seek to prevent users in the UK from accessing their sites or parts of their sites, instead of complying with the Act’s requirements to protect UK users. That is their choice.
If a service restricts UK users’ access, that action would need to be effective in order for the service to fall out of scope of the Act. The key test remains whether the service has links to the UK. This will depend on the specific circumstances (including whether it is still targeting UK users, for example, by promoting ways of evading access restrictions). Ofcom would assess whether a service is in scope on a case-by-case basis and, where the Act applies, would consider the service’s compliance with the law and, where necessary, use our investigation and enforcement powers.
We recognise the breadth and complexity of the online safety rules and that there is a diverse range of services in scope.
New regulation can create uncertainty and navigating the requirements can be challenging. Ofcom is committed to working with providers to help them comply with the Online Safety Act and protect their users. We have therefore developed a range of tools and resources to make it easier for them to understand – and comply with – their obligations. We also recently published a guide to help small services navigate the Online Safety Act.