How effective are the provisions of the Online Safety Act?

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Reference List

1. Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Home Office (2020) Online Safety Bill: Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Command of Her Majesty on 15 December 2020. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-bill

2. Hern, A. (2023) 'WhatsApp and Signal unite against online safety bill amid privacy concerns', The Guardian, 18 April. Available at: https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/18/whatsapp-signal-unite-against-online-safety-bill-privacy-messaging-apps-safety-security-uk

3. House of Lords' Committee on the Online Safety Bill (2021)

4. Kira, B. (2024) ‘When non-consensual intimate deepfakes go viral: The insufficiency of the UK Online Safety Act’, Computer Law & Security Review: The International Journal of Technology Law and Practice, 54.

5. Lomas, N. (2023) 'Security researchers latest to blast UK’s Online Safety Bill as encryption risk', TechCrunch, 5 July. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/uk-online-safety-bill-risks-e2ee

6. NSPCC Learning. (2023) 'The Online Safety Act: what it means for children and professionals', NSPCC Learning. Available at: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/news/2023/november/what-online-safety-act-means-children-professionals

7. UK Government (2023) Online Safety Act: Factsheet on Protecting Children. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-factsheet-protecting-children

8. Woodhouse, J., Conway, L. and Lipscombe, S. (2023) 'Online Safety Bill: progress of the Bill', House of Commons Library Research Briefing, 31 October. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9579/

9. Internet Watch Foundation (2023) Annual Report on Child Sexual Abuse Imagery. Available at: https://www.iwf.org.uk/report/2023-annual-report (Accessed: 10 April 2025)

10.Mbioh, W. (2025) ‘Beyond echo chambers and rabbit holes: algorithmic drifts and the limits of the Online Safety Act, Digital Services Act, and AI Act’, Griffith Law Review, pp. 1–20.