Websites that are identified by Ofcom as Category 2B, 2A or 1 have additional responsibilities. Category 1 platforms are required to verify the age of their users. There are a number of different ways that they might be required to do this, but many platforms have opted for a third party service which requires users to upload a copy of their ID, or by using facial recognition software.
Illegal content
The Online Safety Act states that, ‘Platforms are now required to implement measures to reduce the risks their services are used for illegal offending. They also need to put in place systems for removing illegal content when it does appear.’ This includes removing illegal content and preventing illegal content from appearing for users.
The illegal content that the Online Safety Act applies to is as follows; content relating to child sexual abuse, controlling or coercive behaviour, extreme sexual violence, extreme pornography, fraud, racially or religiously aggravated public order offences, inciting violence, illegal immigration and people smuggling, promoting or facilitating suicide, intimate image abuse (otherwise known as revenge porn), selling illegal drugs or weapons, sexual exploitation and terrorism.
Age-inappropriate content
The Online Safety Act also states that ‘Platforms will be required to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content’.
This includes content such as pornography, content that encourages, promotes or provides instructions for either self-harm, eating disorders or suicide. Platforms are also required to ensure that only age-appropriate access is given to content that includes bullying, abusive or hateful content, content which depicts or encourages serious violence or injury, content which encourages dangerous stunts and challenges, and content which encourages the ingestion, inhalation or exposure to harmful substances.
There are also a number of criminal offences that were introduced by the Online Safety Act which came into effect on 31st January 2024. These include encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, cyberflashing, sending false information intended to cause non-trivial harm, threatening communications, intimate image abuse and epilepsy trolling.
What about VPNs?
After 25th July, many people began using VPN’s, or Virtual Private Networks. VPNs allow users to set their location to a different country, and use the internet as if they were there. This effectively bypasses the Online Safety Act, as users from other countries aren’t required to verify their age.
According to the Guardian, at the end of July, ‘Four of the top five free apps on the Apple download store in the UK are VPN apps, with Proton, the most popular, reporting a 1,800% increase in downloads’. However, it also seems like many users have decided to no longer use sites where they’re required to verify their age; there has been a 47% decrease in visits to pornography websites PornHub and XVideos.
What happens next?
It’s difficult to say what this will mean for children and adults accessing content online. The regulations have resulted in widespread debate in the UK and in other countries like the US, as to whether the Online Safety Act will adequately protect young people, or if it will infringe upon freedom of information and freedom of expression for young people and adults alike.
