If you work for a Video Sharing Platform (VSP), this update is important. If not, unless you're determined to know everything about the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA), I'd quit now and read one of the far more entertaining articles which my colleagues regularly write about advertising regulation! 

If you're still with me, and need a refresher about the transition from the Video Sharing Platform rules (which were implemented in 2020 following the EU's updated Audio-Visual Services Directive) to the OSA, I'd suggest you start with our previous article here: What will change for VSPs under the Online Safety Act 2023? We've also produced a table providing a detailed comparison of the requirements under the out-going VSP rules and the new OSA regime. If you would like a copy, let us know. 

The VSP regime was always a temporary “solution” while the UK government consulted on, and implemented, the new online safety regime.  The OSA received Royal Assent in October 2023, and set out the process for repealing the VSP regime.

The OSA is not yet fully in force while Ofcom consults on various codes of practice and guidance, and so VSPs are subject to a transitional regime until the VSP regime is repealed. The OSA provides that the Government must give VSPs at least six months’ notice of its intention to repeal the regime. 

On 30 April 2024 the Secretary of State laid a statutory instrument in Parliament which set 2 September 2024 as the ‘assessment start date’. This is the trigger date from which providers of pre-existing VSP services need to carry out various risk assessments of their services under the OSA. The required risk assessments are to cover:

• illegal harms risk;
• children’s access risk; and
• if applicable, children’s risk.

However, the guidelines that VSPs need to take into account when undertaking these risk assessments are not yet available. (Ofcom has indicated that they will be available in Autumn 2024, and we do have draft guidelines which have been included in various consultation documents). As VSPs will have three months from the date that the finalised guidelines are published to undertake their risk assessments, it seems that the 2 September trigger date is just a whistle to invite VSPs to the starting block and ready themselves, rather than a true starting gun.

The assessment start date of 2 September 2024 also marks the start of the six months’ notice for repeal of the VSP regime, being the first stage of the repeal process. The ultimate date of repeal will be decided by the Government and it is expected to happen after Ofcom’s codes for protection of children come into force (the date of which is to be confirmed).  However, it will be no earlier than 2 March 2025.

The Secretary of State will lay a second and final statutory instrument before Parliament, setting the date of repeal. From that date the current transition period will end and pre-existing VSPs will become fully subject to the OSA.

So VSPs are forewarned - get ready to undertake risk assessments, but you've got a grace period until the relevant guidance is published.