United Kingdom: Office of Communications opened consultation on amending Illegal Content Codes of Practice concerning user control under the Online Safety Act 2023

On 24 April 2025, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) launched a public consultation to amend the Illegal Content Codes of Practice under the Online Safety Act 2023, open until 22 July 2025. The consultation focuses on expanding the application of two measures: blocking and muting user accounts (ICU J1) and disabling comments (ICU J2). The proposals aim to include providers of smaller user-to-user services that are likely to be accessed by children, particularly those with specified risk levels and service functionalities. The proposed changes would apply to services with between 700,000 and 7 million monthly UK users if assessed as medium risk, and to those with fewer than 7 million users if assessed as high risk for specific types of illegal harm. This expansion would require providers to offer user controls either through highly effective age assurance or by applying them service-wide on parts accessible by children. The objective is to address the risk of children encountering illegal content such as grooming, harassment, and hate, by giving them tools to manage interactions and visibility of user-generated content.