United Kingdom: Office of Communications opened consultation on Draft Update Illegal Content Judgements Guidance under Online Safety Act 2023

On 24 March 2026, the Office of Communications opened a consultation on the Draft for an Update Illegal Content Judgements Guidance (relevant extracts) under the Online Safety Act 2023, with the consultation open until 24 April 2026. The draft guidance was issued under section 192 of the Online Safety Act 2023 and supports Part 3 service providers in making illegal content judgements when complying with illegal content risk assessment duties and illegal content safety duties. The draft updates the guidance to reflect the introduction of the offence of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm under the Online Safety Act 2023 and sets out criteria for assessing intent and distinguishing illegal content from supportive or self-expressive content. The draft also specifies the conditions under which the offence of sending a photograph or film of genitals applies, including where content is sent with intent to cause alarm, distress or humiliation or for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, and provides guidance on contextual assessment and reasonably available information for service providers. The consultation includes extracts from Chapter 1 on introduction, Chapter 10 on image-based adult sexual offences, and Chapter 13 on encouraging or assisting suicide and serious self-harm, as well as Annex 1 on the priority offences, including section A11 on adult image-based sexual offences and section A14 on encouraging or assisting suicide and serious self-harm.