The UK Government say it has 'no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act', in response to 380,000 strong (and counting) petition

On Friday, the UK Government rolled out new measures first introduced with the Online Safety Act 2023 that requires services to verify users' ages to access certain content. Over the weekend, a petition emerged calling for its repeal. Today, said petition has been signed 387,330… 387,331... let's just say nearly 388,000 times and counting. But the UK Government doesn't want to hear it.

"The Government has no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act, and is working closely with Ofcom to implement the Act as quickly and effectively as possible to enable UK users to benefit from its protections."

Ofcom is the regulator that has to make sure services fall in line and get compliant, and it has an extremely wide brief. It needs not only ensure adult sites are age-gated, it also appears to police compliance for forums, political content, health content, and even a tussle with Wikipedia.

The scope of the Act and who needs to abide by it was one of the main concerns covered in the petition's description, which states the Act is "far broader and restrictive than is necessary in a free society", citing concerns with hobby forums being closed down due to a lack of resources for compliance. It calls for "producing proportionate legislation" to replace the Online Safety Act.

The UK Government disagrees, stating it believes the Online Safety Act is proportionate. It also outlines how the Act's aim is "not to penalise small, low-risk services trying to comply in good faith", and outlines its compliance support for small services. It says: "Ofcom will take a sensible approach to enforcement with smaller services that present low risk to UK users, only taking action where it is proportionate and appropriate, and will focus on cases where the risk and impact of harm is highest."

Ultimately, however, the Gov lands on the position that every service, big or small, needs to get compliant. Deal with it.

What's more, the UK's Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Peter Kyle, has put out a post on X stating that those that want to repeal the Online Safety Act are "on the side of predators". This comment from Kyle, made in relation to Reform UK's Nigel Farage, who has said he would repeal the act, appears an example of weaponising a topic to justify one's actions to the extreme. This despite there being a genuine need for debate as to the safety and reach of the Act, if even just to improve it.

The Act currently expects users to verify their age through private companies. This has sparked alarms at the safety of the information being shared, which in some instances could include copies of someone's passport or ID. It could also be a picture or full scan of someone's face to estimate their age. This information is being shared with companies outside the UK, even outside the EU, which some fear will leave their information up for grabs. The act has also, at various points, been seen to threaten end-to-end encryption, with further risks to user privacy.

On the flipside, you don't actually have to do any of this age verification business today, as it can largely be side-stepped by use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or, in the case of Discord's age verification, Sam Porter's face from Death Stranding. VPN sign-ups have soared in recent days, included to the top of smartphone app store charts. What a surprise. Kyle reportedly told Sky News that the UK Government would not be banning VPNs, but would punish sites that advertised VPNs as a means to circumvent age verification.

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