What does the Online Safety Act mean for us?
Recently online, there has been a large influx of conversation over the UK’s new Online Safety Act. But what does the act mean? Who does it affect? How will it affect you?
According to the government, “As of 25 July 2025, platforms have a legal duty to protect children online. Platforms are now required to use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing pornography, or content which encourages self-harm, suicide or eating disorder content.” With this bill coming into effect, many were quick to notice large amounts of content hidden behind age verification walls. Websites engaging in this age verification include but aren’t limited to ‘X’, Reddit, Discord, and the sobriety app ‘sober’.
Many view this as a positive step forward for the UK. Netflix’s 2024 Limited Series ‘Adolescence’ showed a story of a young boy murdering his female classmate. In the series, Erin Doherty’s character Briony Ariston is Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper)’s psychologist after he is arrested and uncovers the relation between the online manosphere and Jamie’s crime. The story is influential in topics such as the Online Safety Act, particularly in relation to issues such as pornography.
Jamie’s story is not unique as many young people online are influenced by ‘red pill’ and anti-feminist content. Influencers such as Andrew Tate and Charlie Kirk were and still are incredibly influential in the world of 12–17-year-old boys. Many views in this manosphere regard women to be lesser than men and often go to derogative extremes regarding women’s autonomy aligning with perspectives often portrayed in pornographic videos.
In 2023, The Children’s Commissioner published a report after taking a survey showing a ‘correlation between early exposure to pornography, frequent consumption of pornography, and the development of harmful attitudes and behaviours.’ In the same report The Children’s Commissioner campaigned for the enactment of the Online Safety Bill which would legally bind online tech firms to act against the spread of adult content for young people.
Many believe that the enforcement of this law is important in tackling radicalisation of young boys as well as growing rates of discrimination within society including but not limited to racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia antisemitism and ableism). This view is shared by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government who enacted the law on the 25th of July 2025 at the beginning of the UK’s summer holidays.
The debate around this Bill has been around for years, being supported by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Government (2022-24) since 2023, however UK citizens are split.
Many dispute the enactment of the law. Whilst it is already effective to an extent in banning children from seeing adult content – for example, Elon Musk’s ‘X’, which had been listed as a large source of 18+ content, now has a message over most of its adult content: ‘Age-restricted adult content. This content might not be appropriate for everyone. To view this media, you’ll need to verify your age to your profile. X also uses your age to show more relevant content, including ads, as explained in our Privacy Statement.’ Many are either bypassing this law by using VPNs (virtual private networks). This allows them to continue accessing the media as different countries such as the USA haven’t got laws requiring age verification, leading experts to question whether this law will be effective.
It is also under questioning from the public as the AI systems used to detect Identification or age based on your face has been showed to be unreliable. Whilst not a study conducted in Britain, a relevant study by ABC News Australia (Australia also has plans regarding children online – believing that under 16s should be banned from social media entirely) found that multiple children as young as 15 were misidentified as in their mid to late 20s; one 16-year-old boy in particular being told he was 29 by the facial recognition, another of the same age being given multiple ages of 19, 37, 26, and 23.
Some question ethics as tech companies are forced to comply with the law or lose a potential audience of 69.6 million people meaning companies may not be following through with age verification because they truly are interested in the safety of children. As well as this, Identification sent to tech companies for age verification are stored with companies such as ‘Verifymy’, who aren’t run by a government agency. These age verification firms are prone to cyber-attack like any online database. One member of the Age Verification Providers Association, Iain Corby, said in a BBC report that ‘The only non-hackable database is no database at all.’ prompting the notion that the safest situation for UK users is to have no verification full stop. As many online had speculated, on the 9th of October, the BBC reported that ‘Discord’s’, (an online messaging site where people can host large online communities) third-party verification site had an official ID leak concerning 70,000 users. Expectantly, many criticised the bill, believing attacks like this recent one were predictable.
Even more criticism arises when many uncover what content has been restricted online. In the same category as eating disorder, self-harm and misogynistic content, content revolving queer identity, the Israel-Gaza War, and more have reportedly been censored. One prime example is the app ‘I am Sober’ which requires you to verify your age to be able to access a community forum where many communicate about struggles in regard to alcohol, drugs, eating and more.
What are your opinions? Is the Online Safety Act going to revolutionise safety for young people or is it a threat to the safety of users?
Citations:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-27/kids-react-to-age-verification-tech-fails/105463500
