Implementation of the UK Online Safety Act: Difference between revisions

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|ArticleType=Legislation}}

United Kingdom's [[wikipedia:Online Safety Act 2023|Online Safety Act 2023]] is a set of laws that claims to protect children and adults online.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=April 24, 2025 |title=Online Safety Act: explainer |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer |website=Gov.uk}}</ref> The act applies to search services and services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other.

United Kingdom's [[wikipedia:Online Safety Act 2023|Online Safety Act 2023]] is a set of laws that claims to protect children and adults online.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=April 24, 2025 |title=Online Safety Act: explainer |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer |website=Gov.uk}}</ref> The act applies to search services and services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other ([https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50#section-4 Section 4]).

~~The~~ act requires ~~all~~ affected websites to implement their own solution for identity verification to prove one's age. There is no official government-sanctioned identity verification platform. Each service provider must implement their own solution or find a third party solution to use to remain compliant.

One of the duties of the act requires affected websites to implement their own solution for identity verification such that it is highly effective to prove one's age ([https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50#section-12-6 Section 12.6]). There is no official government-sanctioned identity verification platform. Each service provider must implement their own solution or find a third party solution to use to remain compliant.

While the press release says "the measures platforms have to put in place must confirm your age without collecting or storing personal data, unless absolutely necessary,"<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Kyle |first=Peter |date=2025-08-01 |title=Keeping children safe online: changes to the Online Safety Act explained |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/keeping-children-safe-online-changes-to-the-online-safety-act-explained |access-date=2025-08-16 |work=Gov.UK}}</ref> the legislation requires that companies track usage by specific people and provide data and/or remote access to Ofcom on demand ([https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50#section-100 Section 100]) <ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |date=2025-07-25 |title=Online Safety Act 2023 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50 |journal=UK Public General Acts |volume=2023 |issue=50}}</ref>

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The Online Safety Act is one act in two different stages. The original that reached royal assent on 26 October 2023 under [[Rishi Sunak]]'s Conservative government, and the amended version in 2025, under [[Kier Starmer]]'s Labour government. In February 2025, amendments related to making corporations more accountable for the content on their websites, as well as accountability for people accessing inappropriate content were brought to and voted on in parliament. The bill was changed again in May 2025 to include biometric face scans and government ID requirements, which was was not voted on in parliament.

[[~~OFCOM~~]]~~, the UK's Office of Communications,~~ is the ~~regulator for the Online Safety Act~~. ~~{{Ph-I-B}}~~

[[Age Verification Providers Association]] (AVPA) was formed in 2018 and is growing rapidly as the age and identity provider industry takes off. It represents all main technology suppliers who have invested in the development of age verification solutions to support the implementation of age restrictions online. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Age Verification Providers Association |url=https://avpassociation.com/}}</ref>

~~[[William Perrin]] has also assisted~~ in ~~creation~~ of ~~[[OFCOM]]~~ <ref>{{Cite web |title=~~William Perrin - International Institute of Communications~~ |url=https://~~www.iicom.org/profile/william-perrin/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250817131102/https://www~~.~~iicom.org~~/~~profile/william-perrin/ |archive-date=2025-08-17 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=iicom.org~~}}</ref>. Due to the Ofcom having to handle the Online Safey Act and [[William Perrin]]'s ties to both Carnegie UK and Ofcom, this would be subject to a conflict of interest investigation however due to Carnegie UK stopping their work with the Online Safey Act <ref name="online-safety-and-carnegie-uk" />, such investigations never took place.

==The impact==

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United Kingdom saw an increased VPN usage by 1400 percent.<ref name="UK_VPN">{{Cite web |last=Speed |first=Richard |date=July 28, 2025 |title=UK VPN demand soars after debut of Online Safety Act |url=https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/uk_vpn_demand_soars/ |access-date=August 15, 2025 |website=The Register}}</ref> As of August 16, 2025, there has been at least 500 thousand signatures petitioning to repeal the act.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Baynham |first=Alex |date=2025-04-22 |title=Repeal the Online Safety Act |url=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903 |website=Petitions: UK Government and Parliament}}</ref>

===~~OnlineSafetyAct~~.co.uk===

===SafetyAct.co.uk===

[https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/in_memoriam/ OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk] is operated by Neil Brown<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Neil |title=OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk |url=https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/contact/ |access-date=2025-08-16 |website=OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk}}</ref>, a UK tech lawyer ([https://decoded.legal decoded.legal]).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Neil |title=Neil Brown (@[email protected]) |url=https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/@neil |access-date=2025-08-16 |website=mastodon.neilzone.co.uk}}</ref> It lists all of the websites affected by the Online Safety Act, with the help of user submissions.

===Use Their ID===

This is a parody site that uses publicly available data about UK members of parliament to create AI-generated mock driving licences. They are clearly marked as satire and users are warned not to use them for anything real. <ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-28 |title=Use Their ID |url=https://use-their-id.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250730001620/https://use-their-id.com/ |archive-date=2025-07-30 |access-date=2025-08-17}}</ref>

==Industry expert response==

===Electronic Frontier Foundation===

The [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] (EFF) posted an article entitled [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/no-uks-online-safety-act-doesnt-make-children-safer-online No, the UK’s Online Safety Act Doesn’t Make Children Safer Online], and covers the threat to privacy of internet users and how the bill restricts free expression by arbitrating speech online, exposing users to algorithmic discrimination through face checks, and leaves millions of people without a personal device or form ID excluded from accessing the internet.

"The internet must remain a place where all voices can be heard, free from discrimination or censorship by government agencies. If the UK really wants to achieve its goal of being the safest place in the world to go online, it must lead the way in introducing policies that actually protect all users—including children—rather than pushing the enforcement of legislation that harms the very people it was meant to protect."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Collings |first=Paige |date=2025-08-01 |title=No, the UK’s Online Safety Act Doesn’t Make Children Safer Online |url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/no-uks-online-safety-act-doesnt-make-children-safer-online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250812070622/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/no-uks-online-safety-act-doesnt-make-children-safer-online |archive-date=2025-08-12 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Electronic Frontier Foundation}}</ref>

===Theo Browne, YouTuber & CEO at T3 Chat===

Theo posted a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TZozNjPcGw YouTube video] covering the Online Safety Act and how it going to destroy the free internet if internet community don't stop it ASAP. He said it's rare that he gets that extreme about something like this, but it's a really important thing that the community jump in front of. In his opinion, this is the fist time something this potentially damaging has been implemented in decades.

====Data Protection concerns====

The Online Safety Act will normalise providing your government-issued identification in order to see content, making everyone more susceptible and vulnerable to phishing attacks perpetrated by identity thieves.

"The only winners of this shit are VPN companies and identity providers."

[[File:Online Safety Act- Offloading Responsibility. .png|thumb|Parents, government, platforms, identity providers]]

====Offloaded responsibility====

By continuing to shift the responsibility down the pipe, we are increasing the potential harm for when it goes wrong. "Who is harmed if they fail their responsibility?"

=====Parents=====

when parents do a bad job of protecting their kids, the kid sees things that they shouldn't.

=====Governments=====

If the government does a bad job of helping the parents protect their kids, it could destroy the open internet.

=====Platforms=====

If the platform does a bad job of verifying the kids using the rules the government gave them, personal info starts to leak.

=====Third party identity verification providers=====

We've massively increased the opportunity and the like surface area of identity attacks and identity theft in general. We've made the internet less free and we've made it way harder to share information and we gave a ton of money to VPN companies for no reason.

==Government response==

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 |ArticleType=Legislation}}
-United Kingdom's [[wikipedia:Online Safety Act 2023|Online Safety Act 2023]] is a set of laws that claims to protect children and adults online.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=April 24, 2025 |title=Online Safety Act: explainer |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer |website=Gov.uk}}</ref> The act applies to search services and services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other.
+United Kingdom's [[wikipedia:Online Safety Act 2023|Online Safety Act 2023]] is a set of laws that claims to protect children and adults online.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=April 24, 2025 |title=Online Safety Act: explainer |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer |website=Gov.uk}}</ref> The act applies to search services and services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other ([https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50#section-4 Section 4]).
-The act requires all affected websites to implement their own solution for identity verification to prove one's age. There is no official government-sanctioned identity verification platform. Each service provider must implement their own solution or find a third party solution to use to remain compliant.
+One of the duties of the act requires affected websites to implement their own solution for identity verification such that it is highly effective to prove one's age ([https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50#section-12-6 Section 12.6]). There is no official government-sanctioned identity verification platform. Each service provider must implement their own solution or find a third party solution to use to remain compliant.
 While the press release says "the measures platforms have to put in place must confirm your age without collecting or storing personal data, unless absolutely necessary,"<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Kyle |first=Peter |date=2025-08-01 |title=Keeping children safe online: changes to the Online Safety Act explained |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/keeping-children-safe-online-changes-to-the-online-safety-act-explained |access-date=2025-08-16 |work=Gov.UK}}</ref> the legislation requires that companies track usage by specific people and provide data and/or remote access to Ofcom on demand ([https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50#section-100 Section 100]) <ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |date=2025-07-25 |title=Online Safety Act 2023 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50 |journal=UK Public General Acts |volume=2023 |issue=50}}</ref>
@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 The Online Safety Act is one act in two different stages. The original that reached royal assent on 26 October 2023 under [[Rishi Sunak]]'s Conservative government, and the amended version in 2025, under [[Kier Starmer]]'s Labour government. In February 2025, amendments related to making corporations more accountable for the content on their websites, as well as accountability for people accessing inappropriate content were brought to and voted on in parliament. The bill was changed again in May 2025 to include biometric face scans and government ID requirements, which was was not voted on in parliament.
-[[OFCOM]], the UK's Office of Communications, is the regulator for the Online Safety Act. {{Ph-I-B}}
+[[Age Verification Providers Association]] (AVPA) was formed in 2018 and is growing rapidly as the age and identity provider industry takes off. It represents all main technology suppliers who have invested in the development of age verification solutions to support the implementation of age restrictions online. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Age Verification Providers Association |url=https://avpassociation.com/}}</ref>
-[[William Perrin]] has also assisted in creation of [[OFCOM]] <ref>{{Cite web |title=William Perrin - International Institute of Communications |url=https://www.iicom.org/profile/william-perrin/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250817131102/https://www.iicom.org/profile/william-perrin/ |archive-date=2025-08-17 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=iicom.org}}</ref>. Due to the Ofcom having to handle the Online Safey Act and [[William Perrin]]'s ties to both Carnegie UK and Ofcom, this would be subject to a conflict of interest investigation however due to Carnegie UK stopping their work with the Online Safey Act <ref name="online-safety-and-carnegie-uk" />, such investigations never took place.
 ==The impact==
@@ Line 44: / Line 42: @@
 United Kingdom saw an increased VPN usage by 1400 percent.<ref name="UK_VPN">{{Cite web |last=Speed |first=Richard |date=July 28, 2025 |title=UK VPN demand soars after debut of Online Safety Act |url=https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/uk_vpn_demand_soars/ |access-date=August 15, 2025 |website=The Register}}</ref> As of August 16, 2025, there has been at least 500 thousand signatures petitioning to repeal the act.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Baynham |first=Alex |date=2025-04-22 |title=Repeal the Online Safety Act |url=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903 |website=Petitions: UK Government and Parliament}}</ref>
-===OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk===
+===SafetyAct.co.uk===
 [https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/in_memoriam/ OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk] is operated by Neil Brown<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Neil |title=OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk |url=https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/contact/ |access-date=2025-08-16 |website=OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk}}</ref>, a UK tech lawyer ([https://decoded.legal decoded.legal]).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Neil |title=Neil Brown (@[email protected]) |url=https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/@neil |access-date=2025-08-16 |website=mastodon.neilzone.co.uk}}</ref> It lists all of the websites affected by the Online Safety Act, with the help of user submissions.
+===Use Their ID===
+This is a parody site that uses publicly available data about UK members of parliament to create AI-generated mock driving licences. They are clearly marked as satire and users are warned not to use them for anything real. <ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-28 |title=Use Their ID |url=https://use-their-id.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250730001620/https://use-their-id.com/ |archive-date=2025-07-30 |access-date=2025-08-17}}</ref>
+==Industry expert response==
+===Electronic Frontier Foundation===
+The [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] (EFF) posted an article entitled [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/no-uks-online-safety-act-doesnt-make-children-safer-online No, the UK’s Online Safety Act Doesn’t Make Children Safer Online], and covers the threat to privacy of internet users and how the bill restricts free expression by arbitrating speech online, exposing users to algorithmic discrimination through face checks, and leaves millions of people without a personal device or form ID excluded from accessing the internet.
+"The internet must remain a place where all voices can be heard, free from discrimination or censorship by government agencies. If the UK really wants to achieve its goal of being the safest place in the world to go online, it must lead the way in introducing policies that actually protect all users—including children—rather than pushing the enforcement of legislation that harms the very people it was meant to protect."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Collings |first=Paige |date=2025-08-01 |title=No, the UK’s Online Safety Act Doesn’t Make Children Safer Online |url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/no-uks-online-safety-act-doesnt-make-children-safer-online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250812070622/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/no-uks-online-safety-act-doesnt-make-children-safer-online |archive-date=2025-08-12 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Electronic Frontier Foundation}}</ref>
+===Theo Browne, YouTuber & CEO at T3 Chat===
+Theo posted a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TZozNjPcGw YouTube video] covering the Online Safety Act and how it going to destroy the free internet if internet community don't stop it ASAP. He said it's rare that he gets that extreme about something like this, but it's a really important thing that the community jump in front of. In his opinion, this is the fist time something this potentially damaging has been implemented in decades.
+====Data Protection concerns====
+The Online Safety Act will normalise providing your government-issued identification in order to see content, making everyone more susceptible and vulnerable to phishing attacks perpetrated by identity thieves.
+"The only winners of this shit are VPN companies and identity providers."
+[[File:Online Safety Act- Offloading Responsibility. .png|thumb|Parents, government, platforms, identity providers]]
+====Offloaded responsibility====
+By continuing to shift the responsibility down the pipe, we are increasing the potential harm for when it goes wrong. "Who is harmed if they fail their responsibility?"
+=====Parents=====
+when parents do a bad job of protecting their kids, the kid sees things that they shouldn't.
+=====Governments=====
+If the government does a bad job of helping the parents protect their kids, it could destroy the open internet.
+=====Platforms=====
+If the platform does a bad job of verifying the kids using the rules the government gave them, personal info starts to leak.
+=====Third party identity verification providers=====
+We've massively increased the opportunity and the like surface area of identity attacks and identity theft in general. We've made the internet less free and we've made it way harder to share information and we gave a ton of money to VPN companies for no reason.
 ==Government response==