Online Safety
The duties of care will require online providers to address various types of risk, including from illegal content and content harmful to children, as well as requiring some providers to enable adult users to protect themselves from certain harmful content or to interact only with others whose identity can be verified. Those services which are accessed, or are likely to be accessed by a significant number of children, will have to use effective age assurance and other proportionate measures to protect children using the service.
How could it be relevant for you?
Are the users of your service, aside from those who are within your own organisation, able to post text, images, videos or other content on your service, or part of it, so that it can be seen by other users?
Do you offer an online space for discussion or forum where individuals can interact?
Do you operate a search engine as all or part of what you do?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, your business could be in scope of the Online Safety Act. You could be in scope if you provide, for example:
- Video sharing services allowing users to connect and upload and share videos with the public.
- Online marketplaces and listing services allowing users to buy and sell goods or services, create pages advertising products and allow users to search for content and send direct messages to other users.
- Online dating services enable users to find and communicate with other users.
- Reviewing services enabling users to create and view critical appraisals of people, businesses, products, or services, typically allowing users to review goods or services by posting written reviews, pictures, and ratings.
- Online gaming services allow for user-to-user interaction in partially or fully simulated virtual environments.
- Fundraising services typically enable users to create fundraising campaigns and collect donations from users.
It is estimated that more than 20,000 entities in the UK alone may be in scope of the new Online Safety regime. It will also apply to services located outside the UK if they have a significant number of UK users, have the UK as a target market, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that content accessible via the service poses a material risk of significant harm to UK users.
The Act has a very broad scope: it applies if you have an online presence and if this allows users to connect and share any kind of content, or if your service allows users to search sites and databases.
If you’d like to discuss any of the issues raised and how they might affect you, please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of our team.
EU & UK Online Safety Legislation – a Stocktake
Digital Services Act
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is another significant online safety-related piece of legislation to be aware of. It will apply in all EU Member States from 17 February 2024 and regulate the provision of digital services in the internal market. It is designed to set a global benchmark in the field of digital regulation and its level of ambition is clear from its extraterritorial effect.
To learn more about DSA and how it could potentially impact your business, click here.
