Online Safety Act Hub
Plain-English guidance on what the Online Safety Act 2023 actually requires — for families, schools, children, and professionals. Updated as Ofcom's phased duties come into force.
What is the Online Safety Act?
The Online Safety Act 2023 is the UK's landmark internet safety law. It received Royal Assent in October 2023 and places new legal duties on platforms — social media companies, search engines, gaming platforms, messaging services, and more — to make their services safer, particularly for children.
The Act's duties are being phased in through 2025 and 2026. Illegal content duties and children's risk assessment duties came into force in early 2025. Age assurance requirements for pornographic content followed later in 2025. Ofcom — the UK's communications regulator — is responsible for enforcement and publishes detailed codes of practice that set out exactly what compliance looks like.
This hub covers the Act honestly: explaining what it requires, what it does not require, and what it means in practice. We do not overclaim Ofcom's powers or imply the Act eliminates all online risk. Parental guidance, open family conversations, and digital literacy remain essential alongside the new legal duties.
Royal Assent
October 2023
Regulator
Ofcom
Max platform fine
£18m or 10% global turnover
Start here: find guidance for your situation
Parents & Families
What the Act means for you day-to-day, and what to expect from platforms.
Schools
KCSIE alignment, school network duties, and what the Act means for safeguarding.
Children & Teens
Your rights online, how to report, and where to get help.
Professionals
Platform duties, transparency reports, and how to escalate to Ofcom.
What the Act does not do
The Online Safety Act significantly raises legal obligations on platforms, but it does not eliminate online risk or give individual users the right to take platforms to court. Harmful-but-legal content for adults is not required to be removed from adult services. The Act raises the floor — it does not remove the need for parental involvement, open conversations, and appropriate digital literacy at home and in school.
All Online Safety Act guides
What the Online Safety Act Means for Families
A plain-English guide to what the Online Safety Act 2023 actually requires of platforms — and what it means in practice for parents and families in the UK.
The Online Safety Act and Schools
How the Online Safety Act 2023 affects schools — both as operators of networks and as institutions supporting pupils who use regulated services.
Your Rights Online: What the Online Safety Act Means for You
A guide for children and teenagers explaining what the Online Safety Act means for them — including their right to report content and get help.
Age Verification Explained
What the Online Safety Act requires for age assurance, what methods platforms can use, and the privacy and legal considerations involved.
What Platforms Must Do Under the Online Safety Act
A clear breakdown of the legal duties the Online Safety Act 2023 places on social media companies, search engines, and other regulated services.
How to Make a Complaint to a Platform
Step-by-step guidance on using a platform's complaint process effectively — what to include, realistic timelines, and what to do if you are ignored.
When and How to Escalate to Ofcom
Understanding Ofcom's role in online safety enforcement — and how to submit intelligence about platform failures. Ofcom does not investigate individual complaints, but uses reports to build regulatory cases.
Illegal Content vs Harmful Content: A Critical Distinction
Understanding the difference between illegal content (which must be removed by law) and harmful-but-legal content (where duties depend on service type and user age).
Children's Risk Assessments: What Platforms Must Assess and Publish
What the Online Safety Act requires platforms to assess and publish about the risks their services pose to children — and how this is enforced by Ofcom.
Safety by Design: What It Means and Why It Matters
The principle that online safety should be built into platforms from the start — not added as an afterthought. Practical examples of what safety by design looks like in practice.
Social Media Age Limits: What the Law Actually Says
Why 13 is not the legal minimum age for social media in the UK, what the Online Safety Act says about age limits, and what platforms are required to do.
Pornography Age Checks: What the Online Safety Act Requires
Adult websites are now required to use highly effective age assurance to prevent children accessing pornographic content. What this means and how it works.
Encrypted Messaging and the Online Safety Act
How the Online Safety Act grappled with end-to-end encrypted messaging — the tension between child safety and privacy, and where the debate now stands.
AI-Generated Abuse Images: The Law and How to Report
Deepfake CSAM and AI-generated child abuse images are explicitly illegal. What the law says, why the IWF treats them the same as real images, and how to report.
Documenting Platform Failures: Building a Case for Ofcom
How parents, schools, and professionals can document when platforms fail to act on child safety reports — building intelligence useful to Ofcom and, in serious cases, to the police.