New rules for online services: what you need to know.
"The Online Safety Act 2023 makes businesses, and anyone else who operates a wide range of online services, legally responsible for keeping people (especially children) in the UK safe online."
Website administrators should familiarise themselves with the new rules to determine whether their website is impacted.
To help get you started this article includes a few extracts taken from the full guidance as published by Ofcom (UK Office of Communications responsible for implementing the legislation) on its website at the link below.
Who do the new rules apply to?
The Online Safety Act 2023 applies rules to services that are made available over the internet (‘online services’).
This might be a website, app or another type of platform.
If you or your business provides an online service, then the rules might apply to you.
When deciding if the rules apply to you, there are three important questions to consider:
- Does your service have links with the UK?
- Do you provide a relevant service?
- Do any exemptions apply to your service?
Source: Ofcom (see link at top of this article).
Which services do the new rules apply to?
The rules apply to services where:
- users can create and share content, or interact with each other (the Act calls these ‘user-to-user services’);
- users can search other websites or databases (‘search services’); or
- you or your business publish or display pornographic content.
A user-to-user service is an online service that allows its users to interact with each other. This includes the ability to generate, upload or share content, such as images, videos, messages or comments, with other users of that online service.
The rules only apply to relevant parts of these services: the parts where users can:
- encounter content generated, uploaded or shared by other users;
- search multiple websites and databases;
- encounter relevant pornographic content.
All other parts of a service are not covered by the rules.
Source: Ofcom (see link at top of this article).
Example
"Imagine you run a retail website where users can buy your products. This isn't relevant, because there's no way for users to interact with each other.
But what if the same website has a chat forum, where users can write messages to each other? This is relevant, because you're allowing users to interact with each other.
So, you should only consider the forum bit when referring to the 'service'."
Source: Ofcom (see link at top of this article).
Check if the Online Safety Act applies to you
Read more: Ofcom Information for Industry Guide
More about WYNCHCO Solutions
Our Mission
Ken Edwards - Company Founder
We help and support managers responsible for Joomla! CMS websites in UK business and third sector organisations which subscribe to WYNCHCO Joomla! CMS Help and Support.
We support organisations in Cheshire, Manchester, Merseyside, and the North West region from our office in Warrington. If you are based in the UK but outside the North West, we can still help.
Our Mission is to put you in control of your website.
We enjoy keeping up-to-date with the latest Joomla! developments, trends and best practices and sharing our expertise with you to help you optimise how you use your Joomla! CMS website.
We work hard to develop and maintain long-lasting customer relationships.
The WYNCHCO Customer Care Code
We aim to deliver excellent support to our customers at all times.
We pride ourselves on building long-standing close-working relationships with our customers.
Key words
- Collaboration.
- Flexibility.
- Shared Purpose.
- Trust.
Our commitment
To provide you with:
- accurate and up-to-date product information,
- helpful solutions to support requests,
- transparent invoicing,
- SSL encryption when you visit our website.
To monitor our services to ensure optimal performance.
To safeguard your personal data.
To resolve your concerns promptly and professionally.
To pay our suppliers promptly and in return ask that our customers do the same.
