Open a social app in the UK and you may be asked to prove your age before you can see a certain feed, or you might find that the way you report a vile comment has quietly changed. Both are everyday signs of the Online Safety Act at work.
The Act became law in 2023. Ofcom regulates it, and the duties have been switched on in stages rather than all at once, which is why one app feels different from another. The short version: the law puts obligations on platforms, not on you. But it also gives you tools and routes you may not know you have — and those are worth learning before you need them.
What the rules actually cover
The Act splits harmful material into two broad buckets.
- Illegal content. This includes terrorism material, child sexual abuse material, fraud and scams, harassment and threats, hate offences, and content encouraging suicide.
- Content that is harmful to children. Pornography sits at the top of the list, along with material encouraging self-harm or eating disorders. Below that sit priority harms such as bullying, abuse and violence.
Any service with UK users — social networks, forums, messaging apps, dating apps, video-sharing platforms and search engines — has to assess the risk of this material appearing and then put reasonable measures in place. Smaller services have lighter, proportionate duties; the biggest platforms carry the heaviest load.
Age checks: who gets asked, and what counts
In this context, a child is anyone under 18. Where there is a real chance children will encounter the most harmful content — pornography being the obvious example — platforms must use what Ofcom calls highly effective age assurance.
Ticking a box to confirm you were born in 1994 does not count. Neither does entering a birth year with no check behind it. Acceptable methods generally fall into two camps: age verification (matching a government-issued photo ID, a credit card check, or a mobile operator confirmation) and age estimation (software that estimates age from a live facial scan).
What that means for your privacy
You are not required to hand over a passport to use social media in general. Age assurance applies where the risk justifies it. If a service asks for ID, it is fair to ask what is stored, how long it is kept and whether an estimation option exists. On-device age estimation, where the image stays on your phone, is the lighter-touch route where it is offered.
If you are a parent or carer
Platforms must now make their defaults safer for younger users and enforce the age limits in their own terms. That does not replace a conversation. Sit with your child, set the account up together, and check who can message, tag and comment. Supervision and family tools in the app's settings do more than any single rule.
What platforms have to do
Behind the visible changes sits a list of duties. Roughly, regulated services must:
- Carry out regular risk assessments and act on what they find.
- Apply proportionate safety measures, including content moderation and takedown of illegal material.
- Enforce their own terms of service rather than leaving them as decoration.
- Provide clear, accessible reporting and complaints routes — and reply to them.
- Give adults on the largest services tools to filter or hide content they do not want.
- Publish transparency information, and name a senior person accountable for compliance.
Enforcement has teeth. Ofcom can fine a company up to £18 million or 10% of its qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is higher, and in some circumstances senior managers can face criminal liability. That is why the terms you click through now carry a little more weight than they used to.
Reporting and complaining so it goes somewhere
A report that vanishes into a void is the most common frustration. A few habits make it more likely to land:
- Report in the app first. Use the platform's own reporting flow rather than a general contact form — it routes to the right team and creates a record.
- Capture evidence. Screenshot the post, the profile and the timestamp before anything is deleted. Note the date and time in your own words too.
- Block and mute while you wait. You are not obliged to keep seeing the content to keep a complaint alive.
- Escalate to the complaints process. If the content stays up or the account is not actioned, ask for the formal complaint route and keep the reference number.
- Give it a reasonable window, then go further. Ofcom does not resolve individual cases, but it does use reports of concerns to spot patterns and decide where to investigate.
Some situations need someone else entirely. Threats, stalking and child sexual abuse material should go to the police. Scams are worth reporting to Action Fraud. If intimate images have been shared without consent, the Revenge Porn Helpline advises adults, and Report Remove helps under-18s get images taken down. If a child is at risk, act immediately rather than waiting on a platform's queue.
Myths worth dropping
The Act is not a ban on anonymous accounts, and it is not a requirement that every user uploads ID to post a photo of their lunch. It is not a blanket prohibition on teenagers using social media either. Nor is it a tidiness rule for the internet: platforms are not obliged to remove everything that is offensive, upsetting or simply stupid. The duties focus on illegal content and on protecting children from specific categories of harm. Plenty of appalling but lawful speech stays up.
A practical 15-minute check
- Find the report button on the two apps you use most, before you need it.
- Tighten your settings: who can message, comment, tag or find you by phone number.
- Review your child's account defaults and turn on supervision tools if you use them.
- If you are asked for age assurance, check what data is collected and whether estimation is available.
- Screenshot anything serious, with timestamps, and keep it somewhere you can find it.
- Know your escalation path: platform complaint, then Ofcom; police for criminal matters; a specialist helpline where one exists.
None of this is legal advice, and the detail of the duties continues to be refined as Ofcom publishes and updates its codes. If you are dealing with a specific legal problem — or a child's safety is at risk — speak to a qualified professional or the police rather than relying on a web page.
Photo: MarieXMartin / Pixabay
