Resources
We are committed to providing updates and links to critical resources to help advocates, researchers and campaigners stay informed and connected during the implementation of the Online Safety Act.
These portfolios of curated resources are continually updated and consistently managed to ensure the Network has access to the most relevant information.
- Ofcom and DSIT Consultations and Publications
- OSA regime: final documents
- Online Safety Act Reference Materials (including final guidance and codes)
- Other Reports and Research
- Evidence of Harmful Design and Impacts
Ofcom and DSIT Consultations and related Publications
Most Recently Released
- Enforcing the Online Safety Act: platforms must start tackling illegal material from today - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - published 17 March 2025
- Online Safety Act: explainer - EXPLAINER (DSIT) - updated 17 March 2025
- Enforcing the Online Safety Act: scrutinising the illegal harms risk assessments - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - published 3 March 2025
- A safer life online for women and girls: practical guidance for tech companies - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - deadline 23 May 2025
- Creating a safer world: the challenge of regulating online pornography - Independent Pornography Review and Government response (DSIT) - published 27 February 2025
- Ofcom calls on tech firms to make online world safer for women and girls - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - published 25 February 2025
- Annual report on notices to deal with terrorism and/or CSEA content - published 23 January 2025
- Age checks to protect children online - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - published 16 January 2025
- Time for tech firms to act: UK online safety regulation comes into force - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - published 16 December 2024
- Technology Notices - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - deadline 10 March 2025
- Draft Statement of Strategic Priorities for Online Safety - POLICY PAPER (DSIT) - published 20 November 2024
- New online safety priorities for Ofcom and launch of study into effects of social media on children - PRESS RELEASE (DSIT) - published 20 November 2024
OSA regime: final documents
- The Online Safety Act 2023 - published 30 October 2023
- Online Safety Act - legislation.gov.uk page with links to the Act, commencement orders, regulations etc.
Ofcom codes and guidance
- Statement: information gathering guidance - FINAL GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - published 26 February 2025
- Statement: age assurance and children’s access - FINAL GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - published 16 January 2025
- Age assurance guidance for part 5 services - GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - 16 January 2025
- Age assurance guidance for part 3 services - GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - 16 January 2025
- Children’s access assessment guidance - GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - 16 January 2025
- Statement: protecting people from illegal harms online - FINAL CODES AND GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - published 16 December 2024
- Illegal content codes of practice and explanatory memorandum - CODES (Ofcom/DSIT) - published and laid in Parliament 17 December 2024
- Illegal content risk assessment guidance - GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - IN FORCE 16 December 2024
- Record keeping and review guidance - GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - 16 December 2024
- Illegal content judgements guidance - GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - 16 December 2024
- Online safety enforcement guidance - GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - 16 December 2024
- Guidance on content communicated ‘publicly’ and ‘privately’ - GUIDANCE (Ofcom) - 16 December 2024
OSA: Regulations
- Online Safety Act 2023 (Category 1, Category 2A and Category 2B Threshold Conditions) Regulations - IN FORCE 27 February 2025
OSA: Enforcement
- Enforcement programme into measures being taken by file-sharing and file-storage services to prevent users encountering or sharing CSAM - opened 17 March 2025
- Enforcement programme to monitor compliance with the illegal content risk assessment duties and record keeping duties - opened 3 March 2025
- Enforcement programme to protect the children from encountering pornographic content through the use of age assurance - opened 16 January 2025
- Important dates for Online Safety Act compliance - published 16 December 2024
- Guidance to the regulator about fees relating to the Online Safety Act - GUIDANCE (DSIT) - published 24 May 2024
OSA Reference Materials
Previous consultations and Ofcom publications
Regulatory Design
- Ofcom’s proposed plan of work 2025/6 - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - CLOSED 29 January 2025
- Researchers’ access to information from online services - CALL FOR EVIDENCE (Ofcom) - CLOSED 17 January 2025
- Online safety: fees and penalties - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - CLOSED 9 January 2025
- Implementing the Online Safety Act: progress update - ROADMAP (updated) - 17 October 2024
- Countdown to a safer life online - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - 17 October 2024
- Draft transparency reporting guidance - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - closed 4 October 2024
- Online safety information guidance - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - closed 4 October
- Exchange of letters between DSIT and Ofcom on “small but risky services” - Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP to Dame Melanie Dawes (10 September 2024); Dame Melanie Dawes to Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP (11 September 2024)
- Illegal harms further consultation: torture and animal cruelty - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - closed 11 September 2024
- Nowhere to hide for tech firms on online safety - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - published 26 July 2024
- Protecting children from harms online - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - closed 17 July 2024
- Ofcom’s Three-Year Media Literacy Strategy - CONSULTATION - closed 24 June 2024
- Evaluating online safety measures - ECONOMIC DISCUSSION PAPER (Ofcom) - published 24 May 2024
- Additional duties for regulated services - CALL FOR EVIDENCE (Ofcom) - closed 20 May 2024
- A quick guide to Children’s Safety Codes - Ofcom - published 7 May 2024
- Online Safety: our research agenda - RESEARCH (Ofcom) - published 15 April 2024
- Letter from Ofcom Chief Executive, Melanie Dawes, to Parliamentarians - published 26 March 2024
- Ofcom plan of work 2024-2025 - published 26 March 2024
- Categorisation - advice submitted to Secretary of State - RESEARCH (Ofcom) - published 25 March 2024
- Pornography review - CALL FOR EVIDENCE (DSIT) - closed 7 March 2024
- Guidance for service providers publishing pornographic content - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - closed 5 March 2024
- Protecting people from illegal harm online - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - closed 23 February 2024
- Ofcom’s proposed plan of work 2024/5 - CONSULTATION - closed 9 February 2024
- Why size and risk matter in our approach to online safety - NEWS ARTICLE (Ofcom) - published 31 January 2024
- Principles for media literacy by design - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - closed 15 January 2024
- Super complaints: eligible entity criteria and procedural requirements - CONSULTATION (DSIT) - closed 11 January 2024
- Implementing the Online Safety Act: protecting children from online pornography - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - published 5 December 2023
- Introduction to the Online Safety Act and the illegal harms consultation; Demystifying the Online Safety Act risk assessments; and An introduction to Ofcom’s draft Codes of Practice for illegal harm - WEBINARS (Ofcom) - December 2023 & January 2024
- Illegal harms consultation - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - published 9 November 2023
- Ofcom’s approach to implementing the Online Safety Act - ROADMAP (updated) - published 26 October 2023
- Call for Evidence on categorisation - CONSULTATION (Ofcom) - closed 12 September 2023
- Update: How Ofcom is preparing to regulate online safety - ROADMAP (updated) - published 15 June 2023
- How we are approaching online safety risk assessments - BLOG POST -published 14 March 2023
- Online safety and data protection - JOINT STATEMENT by Ofcom and ICO - published 25 November 2022
- First year of video-sharing platform regulation - REPORT - published 20 October 2022
- How people are harmed online - RESEARCH - published 21 September 2022
- Online safety and competition in digital markets - JOINT STATEMENT by Ofcom and CMA - published 14 July 2022
- Ofcom’s roadmap to online safety regulation - ROADMAP - published 6 July 2022
Harmful Content
- Ofcom decision on Mintstars under the VSP regulations - published 23 January 2025
- Understanding Online Communications Amongst Children - RESEARCH - published 16 December 2024
- Consulting children about online safety - RESEARCH - published 16 December 2024
- Open letter to UK online service providers regarding Generative AI and chatbots- LETTER (Ofcom) - 8 November 2024
- Tackling illegal content online and implementation of the OSA - letter from Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP to Dame Melanie Dawes - 16 October 2024
- Crackdown on intimate image abuse as government strengthens online safety laws - PRESS RELEASE (DSIT) - 13 September 2024
- Open letter to UK online service providers - LETTER (Ofcom) - 7 August 2024
- Deepfake defences: mitigating the harms of deceptive deepfakes - DISCUSSION PAPER (Ofcom) - published 23 July 2024
- Red-teaming for GenAI harms - revealing the risks and rewards for online safety - DISCUSSION PAPER (Ofcom) - published 23 July 2024
- Ofcom FOI response on definition of harmful misinformation - published 29 August 2024
- Ofcom open letter to UK online services - published 4 August 2024
- Understanding pathways to violent content among children - RESEARCH - published 15 March 2024
- Encountering violent content online starts at school - NEWS ARTICLE (Ofcom) - published 15 March 2024
- Online content: qualitative research - experiences of children encountering content promoting eating disorders, suicide and self-harm - RESEARCH - published 15 March 2024
- Key attributes and experiences of cyberbullying among children in the UK - RESEARCH - published 15 March 2024
- Evaluation in online safety: a review of hate speech classification and safety measures - RESEARCH (Ofcom) - published 12 March 2024
- Protecting people from hate and terrorism under the online safety regime - NEWS ARTICLE (Ofcom) - published 22 February 2024
- Understanding children’s experiences to inform our online safety work - NEWS ARTICLE (Ofcom) - published 9 February 2024
- Tackling child sexual abuse under the online safety regime - NEWS ARTICLE (Ofcom) - published 8 February 2024
- Cyberflashing, epilepsy trolling and fake news to put online abusers behind bars from today - PRESS RELEASE (DSIT) - published 31 January 2024
- ISD reports into online terrorism, violence and hate - RESEARCH - published 19 September 2023
- Content moderation in user-to-user services - RESEARCH - published 14 September 2023
- Evaluating Recommender Systems in relation to Illegal and harmful content -RESEARCH - published 6 July 2023
- Mitigating the risk of illegal content - RESEARCH - published 17 May 2023
- Online fraud and scams - RESEARCH - published 16 March 2023
- The impact of online hate - RESEARCH - published 6 February 2023
- Use of AI in online content moderation - RESEARCH - published 18 July 2019
Search Services
- Search engines can act as one-click gateways to self-harm and suicide content - RESEARCH - published 31 January 2024
- Assessing the risk of foreign interference in search results - RESEARCH - published 19 September 2023
- Sale of prohibited items on search services - RESEARCH - published 19 September 2023
- Online content for us in the commission of fraud on search services - RESEARCH - published 19 September 2023
User Experiences
- Online Nation 2024 - RESEARCH - published 28 November 2024
- A feasibility study of using wellbeing metrics to evaluate outcomes in online safety - ECONOMIC DISCUSSION PAPER - 8 October 2024
- Ofcom’s final media literacy strategy - 7 October 2024
- Ofcom’s three-year media literacy strategy: responses to consultation - CONSULTATION RESPONSE (Ofcom) - 7 October 2024
- Online services pledge to prioritise media literacy - PRESS RELEASE (Ofcom) - 7 October 2024
- How accurate are Twitch’s new content classification labels? - RESEARCH - published 2 September 2024
- Exploring high media literacy levels among children 8-12 - RESEARCH - published 15 March 2024
- Experiences of using online services - TRACKER - last updated 27 July 2023
- Video sharing platform users experiences and attitudes - RESEARCH - published 20 October 2022
- Online Nation 2022 - RESEARCH - published 1 June 2022
Parliamentary and legislative documents
- Online Safety Act implementation - WRITTEN MINISTERIAL STATEMENT (DSIT) - published 16 December 2024
- Explanatory notes for the Online Safety Act - published 27 November 2023
- The Online Safety Act 2023 - published 30 October 2023
- Online Safety Act - legislation.gov.uk page with links to the Act, commencement orders, regulations etc.
- Online Safety Bill: progress of the Bill - RESEARCH - House of Commons library - 26 October 2023
- Online Safety Bill - Parliamentary webpage with links to all the Bill’s stages, including debates, Committee transcripts, amendments and other links
Commentary
- Overwhelming support for Online Safety Act as rules making the UK the safest place in the world to be online become law - PRESS RELEASE - Department of Science, Innovation and Technology - 27 October 2023
- UK children and adults to be safer as world-leading Bill comes law - PRESS RELEASE - Department of Science, Innovation and Technology -
26 October 2023 - “Britain makes the internet safer” - PRESS RELEASE - Department of Science, Innovation and Technology - 19 September 2023
- Online Safety Bill resource page - repository of analysis, publications and blogs from Carnegie UK’s Online Harms programme (2018-2023)
Consultation responses
Protection of children (Ofcom) - closed 17 July 2024
- VAWG sector response
- 5 Rights Foundation response
- NSPCC response
- Children’s coalition statement
- OSA Network response
- Family Online Safety Institute response
Super-complaints (DSIT) - closed
- Summary of responses from DSIT - published 16 April 2024
Illegal harms (Ofcom) - closed 23 February 2024
- Clean up the Internet response
- 5 Rights Foundation response
- Prof Clare McGlynn - University of Durham
- Institute for Strategic Dialogue response
- NSPCC response
- OSA Network response
- VAWG sector response
- UCL Gender and Tech Research Group response
- Which? response
OSA Part 5 consultation (Ofcom) - closed 5 March 2024
Pornography Review Call for Evidence (DSIT)- closed 7 March 2024
Other Reports and Research
- Pornography and the Online Safety Act - REPORT - Prof Clare McGlynn, Prof Lorna Woods and Dr Alexandros Antoniou
- Enforcing the Online Safety Act for Children - REPORT - 5 Rights/Children’s Coalition for Online Safety - April 2024
- Online risks to children: evidence review - REPORT - NSPCC - January 2024
- The Online Safety Act: comparative legal analysis of the provisions for children - REPORT - Field Fisher for 5 Rights Foundation - December 2023
- Evidence submitted to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into Ofcom’s preparedness for online safety regulation - Carnegie UK and Reset - October 2023
- Preparedness for Online Safety regulation - REPORT - National Audit Office - published 12 July 2023
- US Surgeon General Advisory on Youth Mental Health and Social Media - REPORT - published May 2023
- Principles of safer online platform design - DCMS - published 29 June 2021
Evidence of harmful design and impacts
US court case complaints and unsealed material
- Utah Attorney-General case against TikTok - January 2025
- State of NY, Erie County vs Meta et al re radicalisation - March 2024
- New Mexico Attorney-General case against Meta - January 2024
- Bad Experience and Encounters Framework (BEEF) survey - Instagram internal research - unsealed as part of New Mexico court case - January 2024
- California Superior Court Opinion re dismissal of Fentanyl Case re Snap - January 2024
- Multistate Complaint re Meta - largely unredacted - Nov 2023
- Second amended complaint re Fentanyl and Snap - July 2023
- California Master Complaint in re Adolescent Social Media Addiction - May 2023
Whistleblower material
- Arturo Bejar testimony to Congress - November 2023
- Sophie Zhang oral evidence to Parliament & written evidence- October 2021
- Frances Haugen evidence to Congress & transcript - October 2021
- FB Archive - searchable repository of the Frances Haugen papers
Coroners’ reports
- Prevention of Future Death Report: Daniel Tucker - February 2024
- Prevention of Future Death Report: Chloe McDermott - December 2023
- Prevention of Future Death Report: Bronwen Morgan - November 2023
- Prevention of Future Death Report: Luke Ashton - July 2023
- Prevention of Future Death Report: Molly Russell - October 2022
- Prevention of Future Death Report: Callie Lewis - December 2019