Online Safety Act: explainer
The Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) is a new set of laws that protects children and adults online.
New offences introduced by the Act
The criminal offences introduced by the Act came into effect on 31 January 2024. These offences cover:
- encouraging or assisting serious self-harm
- cyberflashing
- sending false information intended to cause non-trivial harm
- threatening communications
- intimate image abuse
- epilepsy trolling
These new offences apply directly to the individuals sending them, and convictions have already been made under the cyberflashing and threatening communications offences.
Illegal content
The Act requires all companies to take robust action against illegal content and activity. Platforms will be required to implement measures to reduce the risks their services are used for illegal offending. They will also need to put in place systems for removing illegal content when it does appear. Search services will also have new duties to take steps to reduce the risks users encounter illegal content via their services.
www.smctube.com have put in place reporting tools on every post, video post and audio post so that viewers and members can report directly to the management on any illegal content, this content will then be removed and warnings or removal of memberships will be the result.
The Act sets out a list of priority offences. These reflect the most serious and prevalent illegal content and activity, against which companies must take proactive measures.
Platforms must also remove any other illegal content where there is an individual victim (actual or intended), where it is flagged to them by users, or they become aware of it through any other means.
The illegal content duties are not just about removing existing illegal content; they are also about stopping it from appearing at all. Platforms need to think about how they design their sites to reduce the likelihood of them being used for criminal activity in the first place.
The kinds of illegal content and activity that platforms need to protect users from are set out in the Act, and this includes content relating to:
- child sexual abuse Â
- controlling or coercive behaviour Â
- extreme sexual violenceÂ
- extreme pornographyÂ
- fraud
- racially or religiously aggravated public order offences Â
- inciting violence Â
- illegal immigration and people smuggling Â
- promoting or facilitating suicide Â
- intimate image abuse
- selling illegal drugs or weapons Â
- sexual exploitation Â
- terrorismÂ
Content that is harmful to children
Protecting children is at the heart of the Online Safety Act. Although some content is not illegal, it could be harmful or age-inappropriate for children and platforms need to protect children from it.
Companies with websites that are likely to be accessed by children need to take steps to protect children from harmful content and behaviour.
The categories of harmful content that platforms need to protect children from encountering are set out in the Act. Children must be prevented from accessing Primary Priority Content, and should be given age-appropriate access to Priority Content. The types of content which fall into these categories are set out below.
Primary Priority Content
- pornography
- content that encourages, promotes, or provides instructions for either:
- self-harm
- eating disorders or
- suicide
Priority Content
- 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.
New offences introduced by the Act
The criminal offences introduced by the Act came into effect on 31 January 2024. These offences cover:
- encouraging or assisting serious self-harm
- cyberflashing
- sending false information intended to cause non-trivial harm
- threatening communications
- intimate image abuse
- epilepsy trolling
These new offences apply directly to the individuals sending them, and convictions have already been made under the cyberflashing and threatening communications offences.