Online Safety: Protections for Women and Girls

The Government are committed to making the internet a safer place and bringing in new protections for UK internet users. Today I am laying in draft the Online Safety Act 2023 (Priority Offences) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. This statutory instrument seeks to update the list of priority offences under schedule 7 to the Online Safety Act 2023, to add the cyber-flashing offence at section 66A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the offence of “encouraging or assisting serious self-harm” in section 184 of the OSA.

The addition of these offences to the priority offences list is another step forwards in our mission to halve violence against women and girls. It will also help to reduce self-harm and suicide.

By adding the above offences to the list of priority offences, online services, such as social media platforms and search services, will need to prioritise these offences under their Online Safety Act duties for illegal content and take steps to ensure their services are not used to facilitate or commit the cyber-flashing or encouraging or assisting serious self-harm offences. Services must also take steps to search for, remove, and limit people’s exposure to this content. Ofcom’s codes of practice set out the measures that services can take to comply with their duties.

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