UK Online Safety Act 2023

Requires online platforms to protect users from illegal and harmful content in the UK.

17

Rules extracted

231

Obligations decomposed

13.6x

Avg obligations per rule

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Jurisdiction

About this regulation

The Online Safety Act 2023 establishes a new regulatory framework for online safety in the United Kingdom. It imposes duties of care on providers of user-to-user services and search services to protect users from illegal content and to protect children from harmful content. Ofcom is designated as the regulator with enforcement powers including fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue or GBP 18 million (whichever is greater). The Act covers illegal content duties, children's safety duties, user empowerment duties, risk assessments, transparency reporting, age verification, codes of practice, and fraudulent advertising. Implementation phased from March 2025.

What AuditDSS covers

Source

1

Regulation

Extracted

17

Rules

Decomposed

231

Obligations

13.6x

Decomposition ratio

Each rule is decomposed into an average of 13.6 atomic obligations — the smallest testable units that can be independently violated.

Fully extracted & scored

All 231 obligations have been decomposed, titled, risk-scored, and embedded for semantic matching.

Risk scoring

Every obligation in Online Safety Act is scored across independent risk dimensions:

W

Obligation Weight

How critical within the regulatory framework

L

Violation Likelihood

How often breached in practice

E

Enforcement Evidence

Regulator enforcement history and penalties

C

Cascade Dependency

How many obligations depend on this one

Regulatory details

Full title
UK Online Safety Act 2023
Regulatory body
Office of Communications
Jurisdiction
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Document type
statute
Effective date
October 26, 2023
Issuing authority
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Official source
View source document ↗

Who this applies to

user-to-user service providerssearch service providersCategory 1 servicespornographic content providersinternet service providerssenior managers

Key requirements

  • illegal content duties
  • children safety duties
  • user empowerment duties
  • risk assessments
  • safety by design
  • transparency reporting
  • age verification
  • codes of practice
  • fraudulent advertising duties

Frequently asked questions about Online Safety Act

What is Online Safety Act?

The Online Safety Act 2023 establishes a new regulatory framework for online safety in the United Kingdom. It imposes duties of care on providers of user-to-user services and search services to protect users from illegal content and to protect children from harmful content. Ofcom is designated as the regulator with enforcement powers including fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue or GBP 18 million (whichever is greater). The Act covers illegal content duties, children's safety duties, user empowerment duties, risk assessments, transparency reporting, age verification, codes of practice, and fraudulent advertising. Implementation phased from March 2025.

Who does Online Safety Act apply to?

Online Safety Act applies to user-to-user service providers, search service providers, Category 1 services, pornographic content providers, internet service providers, senior managers.

How many obligations does Online Safety Act contain?

AuditDSS has decomposed Online Safety Act into 231 atomic obligations from 17 rules. Each obligation is independently testable and risk-scored.

What are the key requirements of Online Safety Act?

The key requirements include: illegal content duties, children safety duties, user empowerment duties, risk assessments, safety by design, transparency reporting, age verification, codes of practice, fraudulent advertising duties.

How can I assess my Online Safety Act compliance?

Upload your compliance policy to AuditDSS. The platform maps your document against all 231 Online Safety Act obligations using deterministic AI scoring — not checklists or LLM summaries. You get a risk-scored gap analysis showing exactly which obligations are covered, partially covered, or missing.

Which jurisdiction enforces Online Safety Act?

Online Safety Act is enforced in United Kingdom by Office of Communications.

When did Online Safety Act come into effect?

Online Safety Act became effective on October 26, 2023.

What industry does Online Safety Act apply to?

Online Safety Act is primarily relevant to the Privacy & Data Protection industry. AuditDSS covers 71 regulations in this industry sector.

Build a Online Safety Act compliance pack

Don't have a compliance policy yet? AuditDSS generates a complete compliance pack for Online Safety Act — alone or combined with other regulations your business needs. Every clause is mapped to specific obligations.

Policy

High-level commitments and governance framework covering Online Safety Act requirements.

Procedures

Step-by-step operational procedures to implement each policy commitment.

Forms & checklists

Ready-to-use forms, registers, and checklists for day-to-day compliance operations.

Multi-regulation

Combine Online Safety Act with other regulations into a single unified compliance pack for your business.

Already have a policy? Assess it against Online Safety Act

1

Upload your document

Upload your compliance policy, program manual, or operational document. AuditDSS accepts any text-based document.

2

AI maps against 231 obligations

Your document is scored against every obligation in Online Safety Act. Each claim is mapped to the obligation tree and evaluated for coverage.

3

Risk-scored gap report

Receive every gap ranked by risk priority with remediation guidance, enforcement evidence, and cascade impact analysis.

Related regulations in Privacy & Data Protection

Assess your Online Safety Act compliance

Upload your document and get a risk-scored gap analysis against 231 Online Safety Act obligations in under 5 minutes.