On the government website, it shares that the Online Safety Act was created to protect “children and adults online” by putting a “range of new duties on social media companies and search services.”
The changes from the act apply across the UK and include age checks on pornography websites, as well as other platforms like Reddit, X and Bluesky.
The Act was passed into law on October 26, 2023, and was implemented on July 25, 2025, with platforms now requiring users to prove their age by ID verification.
Well done to everyone who campaigned to ensure age verification for pornography was in the Online Safety Act!
Today it comes into force and while no doubt there will be some who get around it, it means young kids in particular won’t be stumbling on violent and harmful porn. pic.twitter.com/LGtISAmReC
— Jess Asato MP (@Jess4Lowestoft) July 25, 2025
The measures, as part of the Online Safety Act and set to be enforced by regulator Ofcom, require online platforms to have age checks – using facial age estimation or credit card checks.
Since the act was implemented, a petition has been launched and has surpassed more than 340,000 signatures.
Calls for the Online Safety Act to be repealed in viral petition
Sharing why the petition was made, the creator behind it Alex Baynham, wrote: “We believe that the scope of the Online Safety act is far broader and restrictive than is necessary in a free society.
“For instance, the definitions in Part 2 covers online hobby forums, which we think do not have the resource to comply with the act and so are shutting down instead.
“We think that Parliament should repeal the act and work towards producing proportionate legislation rather than risking clamping down on civil society talking about trains, football, video games or even hamsters because it can’t deal with individual bad faith actors.”
@thomasrpearson Here’s how people are bypassing the ‘Online Safety Act’ #uk #unitedkingdom #political #politicalmemes #labour #keirstarmer #government #politics #commentary #online #safetyfirst #fyp #ai #privacy ♬ original sound – Thomas Pearson 📸
At the time of writing, the petition had surpassed the needed 100,000 signatures for Parliament to consider debating the petition.
On TikTok, the Act has received a large amount of debate.
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Content creator Thomas Pearson branded the act “pointless”, sharing that he believes the act “is a fundamental betrayal of one of the core principles of British democracy; governing and policing by consent.”
Previously discussing the Act, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told Sky News: “I have very high expectations of the change that children will experience.
“And let me just say this to parents and children, you will experience a different internet really, for the first time in from today, moving forward than you’ve had in the past. And that is a big step forward.”
