What does the Online Safety Act mean for children?

The Online Safety Act is designed to protect children and vulnerable individuals from online harm, making the internet a safer place for everyone. For children, this law has a number of important implications:

1. Stronger Protection from Harmful Content: The act mandates that social media platforms and websites take extra steps to prevent the exposure of children to harmful content, such as explicit material, cyberbullying, and hate speech. Platforms are required to put more safeguards in place to detect and remove harmful content more quickly.

2. Age Verification: Platforms will be required to implement more robust age verification systems to ensure that children are not exposed to inappropriate or dangerous material that is meant for older audiences.

3. Parental Control Features: The law encourages platforms to provide better parental control tools, giving parents the ability to monitor and manage what their children access online, helping them create a safer digital environment at home.

4. Transparency and Reporting: Websites and social media companies will be required to disclose how they handle harmful content and how they keep children safe. This will include reporting on how many cases of online harm are being detected and addressed.

5. Accountability for Platforms: Companies that fail to comply with safety standards will face penalties, ensuring that they prioritize user safety, particularly for younger users.

For children, the Online Safety Act means a safer, more secure online experience, with stronger protections against the dangers they might encounter, like cyberbullying, inappropriate content, and online predators.

The Online Safety Act 2023 officially became law in the UK on 26 October 2023 after receiving Royal Assent. However, its provisions are being implemented in phases over several years.

As of 17 March 2025, the first set of enforceable duties under the Act came into force, focusing on illegal content safety duties. These duties require online services to conduct risk assessments and implement safety measures to protect users from illegal content. 

Following this, on 24 April 2025, Ofcom published guidance on children’s risk assessments and protection of children codes of practice, with a compliance deadline of 24 July 2025 for services likely to be accessed by children. The child safety regime is expected to be fully in effect by Summer 2025 .