United Kingdom: Office of Communications closes consultation on Updated Draft Illegal Content Codes of Practice for user-to-user services under Online Safety Act 2023

On 24 April 2026, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) closes the consultation on a draft for an updated Illegal Content Codes of Practice for user-to-user services. The Codes were prepared under the Online Safety Act 2023 and set out recommended measures for providers of Part 3 services to comply with illegal content safety, reporting, and complaints duties. The consultation concerns proposed amendments to the Illegal Harms regulatory documents and guidance under the Online Safety Act 2023 to reflect the designation of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm and cyberflashing as new priority offences and to update the Codes of Practice accordingly, including the treatment of suicide and self-harm as a single category of illegal harm for risk assessment purposes and the extension of existing measures to these harms. The proposed amendments update the Codes by extending the application of existing measures to these harms across content moderation, reporting and complaints, recommender systems, and user controls, including the application of blocking and muting measures to services at risk of cyberflashing, without introducing new categories of measures.