Illegal content safety duties came into full effect on 17 March 2025, shortly followed by children’s access assessment requirements.
By Gail E. Crawford, Fiona M. Maclean, Alain Traill, Calum Docherty, Edgar Lee, and Amy Smyth
The UK Online Safety Act (OSA) establishes an extensive regulatory framework for providers of online user-to-user services and search services with links to the UK, catching a large number of digital platforms and services. The OSA applies to both UK
The proposals includes fines for non-compliance of up to the greater of £18 million or 10% of a provider’s annual global revenue.
By Gail Crawford, Rachael Astin, Alain Traill, Katie Henshall, and Amy Smyth
On 12 May 2021, the UK government published the Online Safety Bill (the Bill), which aims to establish a new regulatory regime to address illegal and harmful content online, including fines and other sanctions in the event of non-compliance. While further developments and guidance are expected, the proposed regime seemingly will have significant implications for in-scope user-to-user services and search engines.
The Bill follows the publication of the Online Harms White Paper by the Home Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport in April 2019. An initial government response to the consultation was published in February 2020, and a full government response in December 2020. (For more information, see Latham’s blog posts on the White Paper launch; government interim response; and government full response).