UK online safety law is going to change the way we use the internet
The UK’s Online Safety Act is intended to stop children from accessing pornography online, but its potential implications are much wider reaching
By Matthew Sparkes
17 July 2025
Using the internet in the UK will soon mean having to verify your age to access certain services
Luis Alvarez/Getty Images
If you live in the UK, the way you access the internet is about to fundamentally change. A new law, the Online Safety Act, comes into force on 25 July and will see a broad range of online providers asking UK users to verify their age through selfies, ID documents and other methods in order to access particular services. Other countries are watching closely, and may follow suit, potentially bringing about a huge change to the way we operate online.
What is the Online Safety Act?
The law is intended to protect children from being exposed to harmful content online. That involves blocking them from accessing pornography and also content that encourages self-harm, depicts violence or encourages dangerous stunts.
Such content remains legal for adults to access online, but they will now have to prove how old they are to do so – which isn’t currently routine. The law is also intended to prevent the spread of illegal content, ranging from child sexual abuse to fraud to terrorism.
Ella Bradshaw at the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) says it is like bringing the internet in line with the sale of alcohol or cigarettes in the real world. “Adults have to prove who they are in a safe, privacy-preserving way all the time. I see this more as a culture change to fix this lag we’ve had online,” she says.
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When does it take effect?
The deadline for complying with the legislation is 25 July, but its effects have already been felt. In the past few months, many small websites have shut down rather than risk falling foul of the legislation, which can impose fines of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of global revenue, whichever is larger.
