Online Safety Act - Important definitions
Important definitions
User-to-user service:
In this Act (Online Safety Act 2023) “user-to-user service” means an internet service by means of which content that is generated directly on the service by a user of the service, or uploaded to or shared on the service by a user of the service, may be encountered by another user, or other users, of the service.
Internet service:
228 “Internet service
(1)In this Act “internet service” means a service that is made available by means of the internet.
(2)For the purposes of subsection (1) a service is “made available by means of the internet” even where it is made available by means of a combination of—
(a)the internet, and
(b)an electronic communications service.
(3)“Electronic communications service” has the same meaning as in the Communications Act (see section 32(2) of that Act).
Communications Act 2003 (32) Meaning of electronic communications networks and services
“Content”
236.1: “content” means anything communicated by means of an internet service, whether publicly or privately, including written material or messages, oral communications, photographs, videos, visual images, music, and data of any description;
55.(2)“Regulated user-generated content”, in relation to a regulated user-to-user service, means user-generated content, except—
(a)emails, (b)SMS messages, (c)MMS messages, (d)one-to-one live aural communications (see subsection (5)), (e)comments and reviews on provider content (see subsection (6)), (f)identifying content that accompanies content within any of paragraphs (a) to (e), and (g)news publisher content (see subsection (8)).
3)“User-generated content”, in relation to a user-to-user service, means content— (a)that is—
(i)generated directly on the service by a user of the service, or (ii)uploaded to or shared on the service by a user of the service, and (b)that may be encountered by another user, or other users, of the service by means of the service.
Regulated services
4.2 A user-to-user service is a “regulated user-to-user service” if the service—
(a)has links with the United Kingdom (see subsections (5) and (6)), and (b)is not—
(i)a service of a description that is exempt as provided for by Schedule 1, or (ii)a service of a kind described in Schedule 2 (services combining user-generated content or search content not regulated by this Act with pornographic content that is regulated).
(5)For the purposes of subsection (4.2), a user-to-user service or a search service “has links with the United Kingdom” if—
(a)the service has a significant number of United Kingdom users, or (b)United Kingdom users form one of the target markets for the service (or the only target market).
(6)For the purposes of subsection (2), a user-to-user service or a search service also “has links with the United Kingdom” if—
(a)the service is capable of being used in the United Kingdom by individuals, and (b)there are reasonable grounds to believe that there is a material risk of significant harm to individuals in the United Kingdom presented by—
(i)in the case of a user-to-user service, user-generated content present on the service or (if the service includes a search engine) search content of the service;
(ii)in the case of a search service, search content of the service.
Children
Anyone under the age of 18
Content that is harmful to children
60.2 “Content that is harmful to children” means
primary priority content that is harmful to children (see section 61),
priority content that is harmful to children (see section 62), or
content, not within paragraph (a) or (b), of a kind which presents a material risk of significant harm to an appreciable number of children in the United Kingdom.
61 “Primary priority content that is harmful to children”:
(1)“Primary priority content that is harmful to children” means content of any of the following kinds. (2)Pornographic content, other than content within subsection (6). (3)Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide. (4)Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for an act of deliberate self-injury. (5)Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for an eating disorder or behaviours associated with an eating disorder. (6)Content is within this subsection if it—
(a)consists only of text, or (b)consists only of text accompanied by—
(i)identifying content which consists only of text, (ii)other identifying content which is not itself pornographic content, (iii)a GIF which is not itself pornographic content, (iv)an emoji or other symbol, or (v)any combination of content mentioned in sub-paragraphs (i) to (iv). (7)In this section and section 62 “injury” includes poisoning.
62 “Priority content that is harmful to children”
(1)“Priority content that is harmful to children” means content of any of the following kinds. (2)Content which is abusive and which targets any of the following characteristics—
(a)race, (b)religion, (c)sex, (d)sexual orientation, (e)disability, or (f)gender reassignment.
(3)Content which incites hatred against people—
(a)of a particular race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, (b)who have a disability, or (c)who have the characteristic of gender reassignment.
(4)Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for an act of serious violence against a person.
(5)Bullying content. (6)Content which—
(a)depicts real or realistic serious violence against a person; (b)depicts the real or realistic serious injury of a person in graphic detail.
(7)Content which—
(a)depicts real or realistic serious violence against an animal; (b)depicts the real or realistic serious injury of an animal in graphic detail; (c)realistically depicts serious violence against a fictional creature or the serious injury of a fictional creature in graphic detail.
(8)Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for a challenge or stunt highly likely to result in serious injury to the person who does it or to someone else. (9)Content which encourages a person to ingest, inject, inhale or in any other way self-administer—
(a)a physically harmful substance; (b)a substance in such a quantity as to be physically harmful.
(10)In subsections (2) and (3)—
(a)“disability” means any physical or mental impairment; (b)“race” includes colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins; (c)references to religion include references to a lack of religion.
(11)For the purposes of subsection (3), a person has the characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex, and the reference to gender reassignment in subsection (2) is to be construed accordingly.
(12)For the purposes of subsection (5) content may, in particular, be “bullying content” if it is content targeted against a person which—
(a)conveys a serious threat; (b)is humiliating or degrading; (c)forms part of a campaign of mistreatment.
(13)In subsection (6) “person” is not limited to a real person.
(14)In subsection (7) “animal” is not limited to a real animal.
