United Kingdom: Office of Communications issued draft Protection of Children Code of Practice for search services

On 24 April 2025, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) submitted the draft Protection of Children Code of Practice for search services to the Secretary of State, as required under section 41 of the Online Safety Act 2023. The draft provides specific guidelines for providers of regulated search services, outlining measures to ensure compliance with the safety duties protecting children, content reporting duties, and complaints procedures. The code includes recommendations on governance and accountability, search moderation, reporting and complaints, settings, functionalities and user support, and publicly available statements. These measures are designed to address the risks of harm to children from various types of content that is harmful to children and to ensure that search services are operated in a manner that protects children's safety and well-being, in line with sections 25(1) and 30 of the Act. The Code is subject to Parliament's approval and is expected to enter into force on 25 July 2025.