Online platforms must begin assessing whether their services expose users to illegal material by March 16, 2025, or face financial penalties as the Online Safety Act (OSA) starts taking effect, the BBC wrote.
Ofcom, the regulator enforcing the UK’s internet safety law, published its final codes of practice on Monday, outlining how firms should deal with illegal online content. Platforms have three months to conduct risk assessments identifying potential harms on their services or risk fines of up to 10% of their global turnover.
Ofcom Chief Dame Melanie Dawes told BBC this was the “last chance” for the industry to make changes. “If they don’t start to seriously change the way they operate their services, then I think those demands for things like bans for children on social media are going to get more and more vigorous,” she said.
Dawes noted that if action is not taken “they will be hearing from us with enforcement action from March.”
Under Ofcom’s codes, platforms will need to identify if, where, and how illegal content might appear on their services and outline how they will stop it from reaching users. According to the OSA, this includes content related to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), controlling or coercive behavior, extreme sexual violence, and promoting or facilitating suicide and self-harm.
Sparking controversy
Critics argue that the Act fails to address a wide range of harms for children. The Molly Rose Foundation, said the OSA has “deep structural issues.” The foundation was set up in memory of teenager Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 after being exposed to self-harm images on social media.
Andy Burrows, the foundation’s chief executive, stated the organization was “astonished and disappointed” by the lack of specific, targeted measures for platforms to address suicide and self-harm material in Ofcom’s guidance.
“Robust regulation remains the best way to tackle illegal content, but it simply isn’t acceptable for the regulator to take a gradualist approach to immediate threats to life,” he said.
Children’s charity the NSPCC has also voiced concerns. Acting Chief Maria Neophytou said, “We are deeply concerned that some of the largest services will not be required to take down the most egregious forms of illegal content, including child sexual abuse material.”
Today’s proposals will at best lock in the inertia to act and at worst create a loophole which means services can evade tackling abuse in private messaging without fear of enforcement.”
Leading up to the Act
The OSA became law in October 2023 after years of political debate and campaigning over social media’s impact on young people. Ofcom began consulting on its illegal content codes in November 2023 and says it has now “strengthened” its guidance for tech firms in several areas.
The codes include greater clarity on requirements to remove intimate image abuse content and more guidance on identifying and removing material related to women being coerced into sex work.
Child safety measures include ensuring social media platforms stop suggesting people befriend children’s accounts and warnings about risks of sharing personal information.
Certain platforms must also use hash-matching technology to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a requirement now extended to smaller file-hosting and storage sites. Hash matching involves assigning unique digital signatures to media, allowing it to be compared against databases of known illegal content.
Many large tech firms have already introduced safety measures for teenage users, such as giving parents more control over their children’s social media activity. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat do not allow users under 18 to be discovered in searches or messaged by accounts they do not follow.
Despite these steps, concerns persist over the Act’s broad scope and implications, particularly regarding platform age verification requirements. Parents of children who died after exposure to harmful content have criticized Ofcom for moving at a “snail’s pace.”
The regulator’s illegal content codes will still need parliamentary approval before fully coming into force on March 17, 2025.