MediaNama’s Take: The broad definition of “online harmful content” can undermine the fundamental right of children to access information if platforms wrongly flag content as harmful. For example, wars are violent and graphic, and both social and traditional media often show disturbing visuals. That alone may justify age-gating such content, but unilateral restrictions also risk depriving users of their right to freely access information online.
At the same time, the surge in VPN sign-ups in the UK shows that users, possibly including minors, are exploiting loopholes to bypass these restrictions. This trend could push the government toward introducing more unnecessary and restrictive regulations on VPNs in its effort to fully achieve the goals of the Act. Additionally, age verification systems that rely on biometric tools such as facial recognition raise privacy concerns. More importantly, mandatory age verification systems requiring facial data or personal IDs risk turning child protection into a tool for online mass surveillance.
What’s the News?
On July 25, the UK’s Online Safety Act (2023) was enforced to regulate and moderate internet content, primarily focusing on pornographic and harmful material. This means that all internet companies accessible to children must implement safety measures to protect them from porn and content deemed “harmful.” Verifying the identity and age of users is the key aspect of the Act.
However, the Act’s broad definitions and interpretations have created friction online. Some users complain that mandatory age verification systems are repetitive and often unresponsive. Adults face repeated checks, and VPN usage has surged in the UK, suggesting that children may be bypassing restrictions to access harmful content.
How Are Violence and Harmful Content Defined in the Act?
There are two ways in which the harmful content is categorised under Online Safety Act: Primary Priority Content and Priority Content.
Primary Priority Content:
- Pornographic content: Any pornographic material, unless it contains only text or text with non-pornographic elements such as identifying information, GIFs, emojis, or symbols.
- Suicide content: Material that encourages, promotes, or instructs suicide.
- Self-injury content: Material encouraging or instructing deliberate self-harm.
- Eating disorder content: Material promoting or instructing users on eating disorders or related behaviours.
Priority Content:
- Abusive or hateful content: Material targeting people based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, or gender reassignment, or that incites hatred.
- Violent content: Material encouraging or instructing serious violence, or depicting realistic violence or injury in graphic detail.
- Bullying content: Material involving threats, humiliation, degradation, or sustained mistreatment.
- Dangerous stunts and challenges: Content promoting or instructing stunts likely…
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