Online Safety Act 2023: Codes of Practice

The harms of viral harmful content do not end online. They can spill into our streets and destabilise communities. Recent incidents—including the disorder following the Southport attack in summer 2024, unrest in Leicester in 2022, and events following the tragic murder of Henry Nowak—demonstrate how online activity can intensify real-world harm at moments of vulnerability.

As set out in “Protecting What Matters”, the Government will go further where needed to protect communities, including by ensuring the Online Safety Act’s crisis response provisions are fit for purpose.

Today I am laying before Parliament draft amendments to Ofcom’s codes of practice on illegal content and the protection of children. These strengthen expectations on platforms to respond effectively where their services contribute to risks to public safety during crises.

The Online Safety Act places clear duties on user-to-user services to protect users, including through systems and processes to tackle illegal content and that which is harmful to children. Ofcom, as the independent regulator, sets out in its codes the steps providers should take to meet these duties.

Following parliamentary scrutiny, Ofcom’s initial codes came into force in March and July 2025. They established a proactive, systems-based approach to tackling illegal harms and protecting children.

These amendments go further. They set an expectation on relevant services to have effective crisis response arrangements, mitigate risks associated with content on their platforms, and work closely with law enforcement where public safety is at risk. This strengthens how platforms address harms such as violence, abuse, hate, extremism and foreign interference.

Ofcom has submitted the draft amendments, which I am laying before Parliament for scrutiny. Subject to the usual 40-day period, the updated measures will come into force 21 days after the codes are issued.

These amendments build on existing collaboration between Ofcom and platforms on crisis response. Following recent unrest in Belfast, Ofcom has written to online service providers to remind them of their duties under the Online Safety Act to assess and mitigate the risks of illegal content, including material that stirs up hatred or incites violence. As Ofcom said in its letter, platforms do not need to wait before they start implementing stronger measures.

These changes mark a further step in implementing the Online Safety Act and strengthening protections for communities. Ofcom will continue to keep the codes under review to address emerging harms. This Government are fully committed to using all available levers to protect the public from harms that originate and spread online.

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