Does the UK Online Safety Act apply to your forum?
Many small forum owners outside the UK assume British law doesn't reach them. The Online Safety Act 2023 regulates "user-to-user services," and its regulator, Ofcom: Online safety, publishes an Online Safety Act compliance guide for providers of online services. Here's what the core illegal-content section says.
- Section 10 sets illegal-content safety duties for regulated user-to-user services, which includes forums.
- Duties are 'proportionate': they depend on your service's risk assessment, size and design.
- When alerted to illegal content, you must have systems to swiftly take it down.
- An amendment adds a 48-hour takedown duty for intimate image content reports.
The core duties
Online Safety Act 2023, section 10 (legislation.gov.uk) requires "proportionate measures relating to the design or operation of the service" to prevent people encountering priority illegal content, to mitigate the risk of the service being used for priority offences, and to manage the risks identified in your "most recent illegal content risk assessment."
It also requires proportionate systems designed to "minimise the length of time for which any priority illegal content is present" and, "where the provider is alerted by a person to the presence of any illegal content, or becomes aware of it in any other way, swiftly take down such content."
The 48-hour rule for intimate images
An amendment inserted subsection (3A): systems to take down content subject to an intimate image content report, and any substantially identical content, "as soon as reasonably practicable, and no later than 48 hours" after the report. Subsection (3B) allows an exception where the provider considers the content isn't intimate image content or the reporter isn't the subject or acting for them. This parallels the U.S. TAKE IT DOWN Act.
Where the duties apply
The duties cover how the service "is designed, operated and used," including terms of use, user access policies and blocking, and content moderation, where proportionate.
Practical steps for a small forum
- Write down a simple risk assessment: what could go wrong on your board and what you do about it.
- Make reporting easy and visible on every post.
- Set a response target and keep a moderation log.
- Update your terms. See forum privacy: GDPR and COPPA.
- Check Ofcom's guidance for services your size.
General information for forum owners, not legal advice. Check the current law and talk to a lawyer about your community.
Published October 30, 2026. We do not use affiliate links on this page; see our Affiliate Disclosure.