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Guide for services: complying with the Online Safety Act
How Ofcom is helping children to be safer online – a guide for parents

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Guide for services: complying with the Online Safety Act

Published: 27 February 2024

Last updated: 21 May 2025

The Online Safety Act makes businesses responsible for keeping people, especially children, safe online

Investigation into an online suicide discussion forum and its compliance with duties to protect its users from illegal content

Published: 9 April 2025

Last updated: 7 November 2025

We are investigating whether a provider of an online suicide discussion forum has failed/is failing to comply with its duties under the Online Safety Act 2023.

The Online Safety Act and gaming: know the risks, the rules, and how to comply

Published: 14 October 2025

Guidance for the gaming industry on how the Online Safety Act applies to these services, the risks gaming could present to users, and what to do to comply with the rules.

Protecting people in the UK from illegal online content – regardless of its origin

Published: 4 April 2025

Last updated: 13 October 2025

The Online Safety Act introduces new rules for providers of online user-to-user, search and pornography services, to help keep people in the UK safe from content which is illegal in the UK, and to protect children from the most harmful content such as pornography, suicide and self-harm material.

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Advice for consumers

Age checks for online safety – what you need to know as a user

As of 25 July 2025, all sites and apps that allow pornography will need to have strong age checks in place, to make sure children can’t access that or other harmful content.

Help for telecoms customers suffering abuse, harassment or violence

If you, or someone you know, are suffering domestic abuse, harassment or violence, it’s important to think about the security and accessibility of your telecoms services and the costs relating to them.

Online safety rules: what you need to know

Ofcom is the regulator for online safety in the UK. Our job is to make sure that online services protect their users.

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Information for industry

Online safety regulatory documents and guidance

Latest versions of Ofcom’s online safety regulatory documents and guidance, as well as links to previous, superseded versions.

The Online Safety Act and gaming: know the risks, the rules, and how to comply

Guidance for the gaming industry on how the Online Safety Act applies to these services, the risks gaming could present to users, and what to do to comply with the rules.

Online safety industry bulletin - September 2025

This is the third edition of Ofcom’s online safety industry bulletin and the first since new rules came into force to protect children online in the UK. In that time, Ofcom has seen change across industry, with many websites and apps putting in place age checks, alongside other new measures.

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