In our previous blog post:
Is your website impacted by the UK Online Safety Act 2023?
we referenced guidance published by Ofcom to help website administrators better understand how the Online Safety Act 2023 might impact their website, themselves and their organisation.
We have since found a better place from which to start this journey and a useful Online Safety Regulation Checker.
Read more: Guide for services - complying with the Online Safety Act
Are you impacted by the Online Safety Act?
The short answer to this question is yes.
Reason, to determine whether or not you are impacted requires that you dedicate time to research the requirements of the new law.
Thankfully, Ofcom provide a useful Online Safety Regulation Checker to help you consider if the new "online safety regulations apply to your business".
Visit the following link to use the Regulation Checker to discover whether you and your website is impacted.
Read more: Online Safety Regulation Checker
We completed the Regulation Checker for our websites
The Reguation Checker comprises six questions. The following tabs show our reponses.
How did we do?
Scroll down to see the results.
Your online service has links with the UK if:
UK users are a target market for your service or it has a significant number of UK users.
Our response: Yes.
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.
User-to-user services include online services which allow private messaging between users.
Our response: No.
A search service is an online service which is, or includes, a search engine. A search engine is a feature which enables users to search more than one website and/or database.
Our response: No.
Our response: No, we don't publish/display any pornographic content.
Yes, users can only communicate by email, SMS, MMS and/or one-to-one live aural communications.
Our response: Yes, users can only communicate by email, SMS, MMS and/or one-to-one live aural communications.
Our response: No, none of the above applies.
Result
"Does the Online Safety Act apply to your service?
Based on the answers you have provided, No.
The Online Safety Act is not likely to apply to your online service."
So based on our responses to the "Regulation Checker" our websites do not appear to fall within the scope of the Online Safety Act and we do not need to take any further action.
Caveat (latin for "be careful")
Ofcom qualify the result provided by their online "Regulation Checker" stating:
"Please note that this result is indicative only and based on the answers you have provided. It does not constitute legal advice or an Ofcom decision.
It is for providers of online services to assess their service and/or seek independent specialist advice in order to determine whether their online service (or the relevant parts of it) are subject to the regulations and understand how to comply with the relevant duties."
Our Response: vigilans esto!
Be vigilant.
If at some future date we were to make significant changes to our websites and/or the law were to change, then our websites could as a result fall within the scope of the Online Safety Act.
Fingers crossed :)
More about WYNCHCO Solutions
We offer Joomla! CMS website coaching design and support services to business, academy school, public and third sector organisations which subscribe to WYNCHCO Joomla! CMS 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.
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.