United Kingdom: Implemented offences in Part 10 of the Online Safety Act, including penalties for online abuse

On 31 January 2024, the provisions under part 10 of the Online Safety Act were implemented. The Act aims to enhance online safety by imposing new responsibilities on social media companies. The Act includes measures to safeguard children online and requires social media platforms to promptly remove illegal content, prevent access to harmful content for children, enforce age limits and age-checking measures, provide transparency regarding risks to children, and offer accessible reporting mechanisms for users encountering problems online. Additionally, the Act targets individual behaviours under part 10, such as cyberflashing, fake news causing non-trivial harm, and other online abuses. Specifically, the Act criminalises the sending of flashing images to cause harm to people with epilepsy. Sharing explicit images without consent, sending death threats or threats of serious harm online, and posting content encouraging or assisting serious self-harm are also criminalised. The offences, effective from the same date, impose penalties, including up to five years in prison. Finally, Section 186 from Part 10, outlines the conditions under which corporate officers, including directors, managers, and secretaries, can face criminal liability if the body corporate commits offenses specified in Part 10 of the Act.