Implementation of the UK Online Safety Act

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United Kingdom's Online Safety Act 2023 is a set of laws that claims to protect children and adults online. 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," the legislation requires that companies track usage by specific people and provide data and/or remote access to Ofcom on demand (Section 100) 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 (Schedule 13.4).

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."

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 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.

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.

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.

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William Perrin has also assisted in creation of OFCOM . 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 , 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, 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. 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 OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk.

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Spotify

To view age-restricted content on Spotify, users in the UK are now asked for facial scanning; if that fails, ID verification can only correct the error.

YouTube

Main article: Youtubes Requirement for Government ID

On July 30, 2025, YouTube responded by announcing its verification system, requesting users for either a government-issued ID, a photo, or credit card, in order to show that users are 18 and older. Age will be estimated through various information, including videos watched, and would lock users flagged below 18 unless they send one of aforementioned proofs.

Wikipedia

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) sued the United Kingdom to prevent them from forcing age checks on their websites. The WMF made a statement that being forced to comply with this act would compromise the privacy of its editors and the neutrality of the encyclopedia. On August 11, 2025, the London High Court denied the WMF's reasoning, but didn't necessarily force age checks for the website.

Consumer response

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United Kingdom saw an increased VPN usage by 1400 percent. As of August 16, 2025, there has been at least 500 thousand signatures petitioning to repeal the act.

OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk

OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk is operated by Neil Brown, a UK tech lawyer (decoded.legal). It lists all of the websites affected by the Online Safety Act, with the help of user submissions.

Government response

Ofcom discouraged the promotion of VPNs.

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. This was only after three days (25 July 2025) the "highly effective age assurance" requirement came into force.

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."