The Online Safety Act’s illegal content duties apply to offences, defined as “priority illegal content” that are contained in Schedule 5 (terrorism offences), Schedule 6 (child sexual abuse offences) and Schedule 7 (a range of other offences). The PDF below provides links to the legislation that underpins those individual offences and, where applicable, Crown Prosecution Guidance on the offence.

The Online Safety Bill completed its Parliamentary passage in September 2023 and was granted Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Online Safety Act 2023 sets out a broad, if complex, framework for regulation. Many of the provisions came into force as soon as the Act was passed (see our Commencement explainer here); it will be for Ofcom – as the designated regulator – to then fill in the detail of the implementation regime through a swathe of consultations, including risk assessments, codes of practice and guidance. Ofcom have set out how they intend to do this, with a three-phase consultation process starting in November 2023.

This table provides an at-a-glance comparison of the duties that the Online Safety Act confers on regulated services in each category: 1, 2a. 2b and search.

This timeline sets out what happened when - from the UK Government’s initial policy proposals on internet regulation through to the Online Safety Act receiving Royal Assent. A PDF with clickable links to the policy and legislative documents is available to download below.