Does the Online Safety Act apply to your service?
This page provides information about the Online Safety Act 2023 and who it applies to. Our Online Safety Regulation Checker can help you consider if online safety regulation set out in the Act applies to your business.
Check if the regulations apply
If your business provides an online service (a service made available over the internet), such as a website or an app, the Online Safety Act 2023 (the “Act") may apply. The Act introduces new regulations for online service providers to help keep people in the UK – especially children – safe from illegal and harmful content online.
The regulations apply to the kinds of online services set out below if they have links to the UK. We’ve provided a checker to help you consider if you have any of the relevant features and if you need to comply with the regulations:
- Online services which allow users to encounter content generated, uploaded or shared by other users (“user-to-user” services). Broadly speaking, user-to-user services include services where users may encounter content – such as messages, images, videos and comments – that has been generated, uploaded or shared by other users on the service. This includes services which allow private messaging between users;
- Online services that are or include a search engine which enable users to search multiple websites and databases (“search services”); and
- Online services where the provider of the service publishes or displays pornographic content.
The regulations are international in their reach and apply to online services that have links with the UK, regardless of where the provider of the service is based or registered.
Our checker includes six questions and should take around 10 minutes to complete. Each question includes a ‘more information’ section which will help explain the terminology used in the Act.
Please note: The outcome of this checker is indicative only and does not constitute legal advice. It is for you to assess your services and/or seek independent specialist advice to determine whether your service (or the relevant parts of it) are subject to the regulations and understand how to comply with the relevant duties under the Act.
We often use the term “online service” to refer to “internet service” as defined under the Act. The definition of internet services includes services such as websites and applications made available by the internet, or by way of a combination of the internet and an electronic communications service. For example, a service which is partly made available over the internet and partly by routing through the public switched telephone network counts as an internet service. This captures services accessed by a mobile phone application as well as those accessed via an internet web browser.
The relevant legal requirements under the Act can apply to your internet service in full or the relevant parts of it that fall within the scope of the Act. Multiple legal requirements will apply to your service where your internet service falls within two or more of the above listed categories.