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This weekend is the second birthday of the Online Safety Act after receiving Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. As a birthday present, the UK government has laid new regulations in parliament.
The draft regulations are to be made under section 222(3) of the Act and implement the government's promise to make cyberflashing and content inducing serious self harm priority offences under the Act. The regulations will come into force 21 days after they are made, following approval by both Houses of Parliament.
In September, the government announced that it would toughen the Act by putting stricter legal requirements on tech companies to search for and remove material that encourages or assists serious self-harm. Although platforms are already required to protect children from self-harm content, the government recognises that adults battling mental health challenges are equally at risk from exposure to material that could trigger a mental health crisis or worse. The new regulations mean that content encouraging or assisting serious self-harm will be treated as a priority offence for all users.
Separately, the government announced that it will make cyberflashing a priority offence under the Act. Cyberflashing became a criminal offence in England and Wales in January 2024, under the Online Safety Act 2023. The law made it illegal to send unsolicited sexual images with intent to cause alarm, distress, or for sexual gratification. Prison sentences of up to two years are possible.
Under the Online Safety Act, failing to proactively implement measures to protect users can lead to fines of up to 10% of the companies' qualifying worldwide revenue or £18 million (whichever is higher) and potentially blocking their services in the UK.
In practical terms, this means platforms must use cutting-edge technology to actively seek out and eliminate this content before it can reach users and cause irreparable harm, rather than simply reacting after someone has already been exposed to it.
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