The Online Safety Act 2023 is a set of laws introduced to protect children and adults online. It puts a range of new duties onto organisations, including social media companies, who offer services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other.
This includes a range of websites, apps, consumer file cloud storage, sharing sites, video-sharing platforms, online forums, dating services, online instant messaging services, social media companies and search services. The Act makes these providers responsible for user safety on their platforms.
Ofcom, the independent regulator of Online Safety in the UK, introduced the Protection of Children Codes which came into force in July 2025, outlining how online services can meet their duties under the UK Online Safety Act 2023 to protect children online.
You can access the Government link below for the Online Safety Act Explainer –
The Explainer provides clear and detailed information to help schools, colleges and Multi Academy Trusts, especially designated safeguarding leads and staff dealing with student digital safety.
The main phases are as follows:
- Tackling illegal and harmful content – Company providers will now need to detect prevent, and remove illegal content. The illegal content duties are now in effect and service providers must now have completed their assessments of the risk of illegal content appearing on their service.
- Duties about age restricted content harmful to children – Ofcom published its guidance about the use of age assurance and enforcing age limits to prevent children accessing online pornography. Providers also need to ensure users can easily report harmful content.
- Risk Assessment & duties for categorised services – The Online Safety Act established categories which are thresholds for online services to classify their levels of risk and to enhance transparency and accountability. Companies must assess the risks their platforms pose against these categories and put measures in place to ensure the safety of users.
Ofcom Resources:
Ofcom has published information on how they are helping children to be safer online. The first link is a guide for parents, along with a guide which offers useful information for those in education.
You can access this information here:
Monitoring the risks students encounter online and across the school network requires a robust digital monitoring solution to capture and report any harmful and illegal content that is being accessed.
The Securus library contains 25 categories of concern, all of which adhere to the latest Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance, the Ofsted Inspection Framework and the laws set out in the Online Safety Act 2023.
Get in touch with the Securus Team for more information on either our School-Managed Monitoring Solution or the Full Monitoring Service (FMS). Contact us here or call us on 0330 124 1750