The UK government has announced it is strengthening the Online Safety Act 2023 to make sharing intimate images without consent a priority offence, including deepfakes, putting it on the same footing as selling weapons and drugs online. To this end, it has drafted new Online Safety Act 2023 (Priority Offences) (Amendment) Regulations 2024. 

Offences of sharing intimate images without consent appear under section 66B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

The offence of sharing intimate images without consent will be classified as the most serious type of online offences under the Online Safety Act, meaning platforms will now have to take steps to proactively remove this material, as well as to prevent it from appearing in the first place. If firms fail to comply with their duties the regulator Ofcom will have robust enforcement powers, including imposing fines that could reach up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue.

The strengthening of the law forms part of the government’s commitment to ensure new and existing technologies are safely developed and help keep people safer online, particularly women and girls, with more than one in three women in the UK having experienced abuse online.

The government’s changes have the ambitious aim of helping to tackle sexual offending and the normalisation of misogynistic material online as part of the government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade.

If you would like to read more about the Online Safety Act, see our client guide.