Good or Bad, the UK Online Safety Act Is Now Something Internet Professionals Need to Concern Themselves With

It’s official: the UK Online Safety Act is no longer just a proposal or a policy debate—it’s law. And regardless of whether you think it's a step forward or a step too far, if you work on the internet in any professional capacity, you now have a new layer of complexity to account for.

At its core, the Act is designed to make online platforms safer, particularly for children, and to hold tech companies accountable for harmful content. Think illegal material, cyberbullying, self-harm content, or anything that might enable exploitation. The goals are understandable—commendable, even. But the implementation? That’s where the waters get murky.

As the UK government puts it, this legislation is about “holding tech companies to account while protecting freedom of expression.” But anyone who's spent time navigating regulation knows that enforcement is where ideals and unintended consequences collide. Already, more than 300,000 people have signed a petition opposing the law, worried that it could undermine encryption, criminalize ordinary internet use, or create chilling effects on speech.

If you run a platform, build digital services, or even contribute to open-source tech that enables online communication, this law isn’t just the UK’s problem—it’s yours. The UK may be the first Western country to pass this kind of sweeping online safety legislation, but it won’t be the last. The Act gives Ofcom—the UK’s communications regulator—new powers to fine, investigate, and even prosecute companies that don’t comply. In other words: the age of “build it, ship it, and moderate later” is coming to a close.

Here are a few things to watch:

• Age Verification Will Be a Hot Potato – Platforms hosting content that might be harmful to children will now need to prove they’re taking steps to prevent minors from accessing it. That could mean intrusive verification mechanisms or risk-based profiling. Either way, friction is coming to previously anonymous spaces.

• End-to-End Encryption Is Under Threat – While the Act doesn’t ban encryption outright, it does create scenarios where companies may be compelled to scan messages for harmful content. That puts encrypted services in an impossible bind: break privacy or face penalties.

• Liability Loops Are Growing – This law dramatically expands the scope of legal responsibility for user-generated content. For startups and small teams, that could mean needing legal counsel and compliance infrastructure far earlier than before.

• Freedom of Speech vs. Safety – The balancing act here is delicate. Some critics argue that in trying to protect users from harm, the Act grants sweeping powers that could be used to suppress legitimate discourse. What qualifies as “legal but harmful” content is often subjective—and policies that are well-intentioned in one administration may be dangerous under another.

Like GDPR before it, the Online Safety Act is likely to have global implications. Even if your company isn’t based in the UK, if your users are, you’re in scope. And with regulators watching each other closely across jurisdictions, we should expect more of this—not less.

So whether you think this legislation is a necessary evolution of digital governance or a flawed attempt at control, one thing is clear: it’s real, it’s enforceable, and it’s already reshaping the internet. As professionals, we need to move beyond abstract debates and start asking concrete questions: What does compliance look like? What rights do our users have? What obligations do we now shoulder?