UK Online Safety Act — the verified record, live

The Online Safety Act 2023 is the United Kingdom's framework for regulating user-to-user services and search services with links to the UK, alongside providers publishing pornographic content. It imposes duties of care to assess and mitigate risks from illegal content and, for services likely to be accessed by children, from content harmful to children — enforced not against individual items of content but against systems and processes. Ofcom is the regulator, and has been implementing the regime in phases: illegal content risk assessment and safety duties took effect from early 2025, followed by children's access assessments, highly effective age assurance expectations for pornography, and children's safety duties from mid-2025, with categorisation of the largest services and additional transparency and user empowerment duties following. Enforcement has begun, including investigations into smaller high-risk sites and age assurance compliance. Fines can be severe, and the Act's approach to age verification and encryption remains politically and technically contested.

Every document below comes from the body that published it — regulators, courts, parliaments, official registers — with its true publication date and a link to the primary source.

as of 2026-08-31 · refreshed from scheduled releases

Latest developments

Publishing bodies represented

Frequently asked

Who enforces the Online Safety Act?

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, enforces the Act. It sets the detail of the regime through codes of practice and guidance, receives risk assessments, and can issue information notices, provisional notices of contravention and confirmation decisions. Its toolkit includes substantial fines and, in serious cases, court orders requiring payment, advertising or internet access providers to withdraw services — so-called business disruption measures.

Who does the Online Safety Act apply to?

It applies to user-to-user services and search services with links to the UK — a significant number of UK users, the UK as a target market, or material risk of significant harm to UK users — wherever the provider is based. Separate duties apply to providers publishing regulated pornographic content. Obligations scale with risk and, for certain duties, with categorisation of the largest or riskiest services.

What are the penalties under the Online Safety Act?

Ofcom can fine providers up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater. Senior managers can face criminal liability in defined circumstances, notably for failures connected to information notices and child safety duties. Courts can also impose business disruption measures that cut off payment or advertising services or require access providers to block a service in the UK.

More: The Wire — this week across the record · all 38 ecosystems · analyst briefs on this regulation ↗