Implementation of the UK Online Safety Act: Difference between revisions

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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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[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.

== ~~Industry expert response~~ ==

===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>

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

==Industry expert response==

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.

=== Electronic Frontier Foundation ===

===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 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 47: / Line 45: @@
 [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.
-== Industry expert response ==
+===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>
-=== Theo Browne, YouTuber & CEO at T3 Chat ===
+==Industry expert response==
-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.
-=== Electronic Frontier Foundation ===
+===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==