On Monday, the Government announced urgent action to strengthen the Online Safety Act by amending it to classify content encouraging or assisting serious self-harm as a “priority offence” for all users, not just children.
This change will legally require tech companies to proactively use cutting-edge technology to hunt down and remove such material before it can reach users, rather than simply reacting after it has been published.
As with all these nefarious schemes, who decides what content causes “self-harm”? It is open-ended and can be applied to just about any content – which is the intention.
The following are extracts from the article ‘UK OSA moves past age assurance into censorship with self-harm content designation’ published by Biometric Update on 9 September 2025.
The UK government continues to build out the Online Safety Act (“OSA”), this week announcing tighter legal requirements for platforms to locate and remove material that encourages or assists serious self-harm.
The change means that platforms will have the responsibility to ensure content previously subject to age assurance regulations, which is also being made illegal, is intercepted and removed before reaching children or adult users.
The move is just the first in what is expected to be a series of amendments toughening the OSA by new Technology Secretary Liz Kendall. Ofcom is expected to publish a register of regulated services soon, MLex reports, after the government’s approach to categorisation was upheld in court.
A release from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (“DSIT”) says the OSA will be amended to classify self-harm content as a “priority offence.” It specifies that, while the measure is partly to protect children from content that promotes suicide, eating disorders and “online challenges or hoaxes that may encourage someone to take part in an activity that could cause them harm,” it also aims to help adults with mental health challenges avoid bogus medical advice and potential triggers....<<<Read More>>>...
