Implementation of the UK Online Safety Act: Difference between revisions
→Wikipedia: link |
→Background: added William Perrin's ties to both Ofcom and Carnegie UK and the lack of a conflict of interest investigation. - should this be its own section? |
||
| (7 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
| Line 7: | Line 7: | ||
|ArticleType=Legislation}} | |ArticleType=Legislation}} | ||
United Kingdom's [[wikipedia:Online Safety Act 2023|Online Safety Act 2023]] is a | 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. | ||
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. | |||
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> | |||
Enforcement of this act is done by the UK's Office of Communications ([[OFCOM]]). The penalty for breaking these rules is the greater of £18 million and 10% of the person’s qualifying worldwide revenue ([https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50#schedule-13-paragraph-4 Schedule 13.4]).<ref name=":1" /> | |||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
{{ | The Online Safety Act is a "Bill to make provision for and in connection with the regulation by [[OFCOM]] of certain internet services; for and in connection with communications offences; and for connected purposes."<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2024-08-19 |title=Online Safety Act 2023 |url=https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3137 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=UK Parliament: Parliamentary Bills}}</ref> | ||
== | The Online Safety Act received royal assent on 26 October 2023, following five years of work by [[Carnegie UK]], working in concert with over 50 partners. In 2018, Carnegie UK published a series of blogs by [[William Perrin]] and [[Professor Lorna Woods]], outlining the proposal for social media regulation. The UK Government published its [https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/online-harms-white-paper White Paper] on 8 April 2019, tackling online harm, with a duty of care approach at its core. Carnegie UK ended their work on the Online Safety Act in October 2023.<ref name="online-safety-and-carnegie-uk">{{Cite web |last=Davidson |first=Sarah |date=26 October 2023 |title=Online safety and Carnegie UK |url=https://carnegieuk.org/blog/online-safety-and-carnegie-uk/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250701203854/https://carnegieuk.org/blog/online-safety-and-carnegie-uk/ |archive-date=2025-07-01 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Carnegie UK}}</ref> | ||
{{Ph-I-I}} | |||
The bill was sponsored by [[Michelle Donelan]], the (now former) Conservative MP for Chippenham and [[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay]], a current member of the House of Lords. Both on behalf of the [[UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport]]. <ref name=":4" /> | |||
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}} | |||
[[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== | |||
Since the UK Online Safety Act applies to search services and services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other, <ref name=":2" /> it has a broad impact across the entire internet for those accessing websites from within the UK. All online services that [[OFCOM]] deems to be within the scope of the Online Safety Act must incorporate an identity verification process to determine each user's age.<ref name=":3" /> This has forced many websites to geo-block the UK because they are too small to justify or afford implementing their own the identity verification process or partnering with a third provider. A list of affected websites is available on [https://OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk]. {{Ph-I-I}} | |||
===YouTube=== | ===YouTube=== | ||
| Line 24: | Line 39: | ||
==Consumer response== | ==Consumer response== | ||
{{Ph-I-ConR}} | {{Ph-I-ConR}} | ||
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>{{Cite web |last=Baynham |first=Alex |title= Repeal the Online Safety Act| url=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903}}</ref> | 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=== | |||
[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. | |||
==Government response== | ==Government response== | ||
Ofcom discouraged the promotion of VPNs.<ref name="UK_VPN" /> | Ofcom discouraged the promotion of VPNs.<ref name="UK_VPN" /> | ||
"The Government has no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act, and is working closely with Ofcom to implement the Act as quickly and effectively as possible to enable UK users to benefit from its protections." < | UK Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for debate. On 28 July 2025, when the petition to repeal the act had about 400,000 signatures, the government responded with this message: "The Government has no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act, and is working closely with Ofcom to implement the Act as quickly and effectively as possible to enable UK users to benefit from its protections.", only a few days after coming into force.<ref name=":0" /> This was only after three days (25 July 2025) the "highly effective age assurance" requirement came into force.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Department for Science, Innovation and Technology |date=2025-07-24 |title=Collection: Online Safety Act |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/online-safety-act |website=Gov.UK}}</ref> | ||
The technology minister [[Peter Kyle]] said on Good Morning Britain, "if you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators. Not those who want to keep children safe."<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-07-29 |title=Peter Kyle Says 'Nigel Farage Is on the Side of Predators' |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MaeOLISlA |access-date=2025-08-16 |work=Good Morning Britain, Youtube}}</ref> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||