United Kingdom: Secretary of State laid before parliament draft Online Safety Act (Priority Offences) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 classifying self-harm content as priority offences

On 21 October 2025, the Secretary of State laid before Parliament the draft Online Safety Act 2023 (Priority Offences) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. The draft statutory instrument updates Schedule 7 of the Online Safety Act to include cyberflashing (section 66A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003) and encouraging or assisting serious self-harm (section 184 of the OSA) as priority offences. Following the entry into force of the regulations, online service providers, including social media platforms and search services, will be required to prioritise these offences under their Online Safety Act duties for illegal content. They must take steps to ensure their services are not used to facilitate or commit cyberflashing or encourage or assist serious self-harm. Providers will also need to remove and limit users’ exposure to such content in accordance with the Office of Communications’ codes of practice.