United Kingdom: Office of Communications opened consultation on proposed amendments to Chapter 4 of the Illegal Content Judgements Guidance

On 30 June 2025, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) opened a consultation on proposed amendments to Chapter 4 of the Illegal Content Judgements Guidance until 20 October 2025. This chapter, titled 'Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA): Offences relating to child sexual abuse material (CSAM),' introduces new paragraphs and amendments aimed at enhancing the guidelines for identifying and handling illegal content related to child sexual exploitation and abuse. The proposed amendments include the addition of new paragraphs and grey boxes titled 'Usage examples' and 'Reasonably available information for user-to-user services'. The guidance outlines the duty of providers to report detected but unreported CSEA content to the National Crime Agency and details the criteria for identifying indecent images, pseudo-photographs, and prohibited images of children. It also addresses the use of generative artificial intelligence in creating illegal content and the responsibilities of service providers in inferring the age of subjects in potentially illegal material.