The online safety act came into force last week to introduce a toughening of rules to protect children and stop illegal activity.
PornHub, Reddit and Twitter are among the sites that now require age checks to limit underage users from being exposed to harmful content, with tech secretary Peter Kyle calling it “one big step forward” .
The act has come in at a time when social media has been blamed for encouraging disorder such as the protests in Epping and allowing young teens to be groomed by older users on a site designed for friendships .
Here is how the regulations break down as to what you can and cannot post online.
What the government and law states
Under the Online Safety Act 2023 , there is an onus on social media companies and search services to “implement systems and processes to reduce risks their services are used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content when it does appear”.
The government states that the kinds of illegal content and activity that platforms need to protect users from are set out in the act, and this includes content relating to:
Under the act, action is expected to take down this type of content and also punish users who have shared it. There are also special conditions to protect children, with removal expected of content that is not illegal that could be harmful or age-inappropriate for children. This can relate to materials used to bully, or pornographic content.
Beyond these laws, however, individual websites do have their own policies for what can and cannot be posted.
What you cannot post on Meta platforms: Facebook / Instagram
On Facebook, the list includes : Nudity or other sexually suggestive content, hateful conduct, credible threats or direct attacks on an individual or group, content that contains self-harm or excessive violence, fake or impostor profiles, and spam.
Instagram states that it bans : nudity (with some exceptions), spam, illegal content, hate speech, bullying, abuse, self-injury, and graphic violence. It also has rules around intellectual property.
What you cannot post on YouTube
YouTube has a long list of policies over various types of content.
What you cannot post on Twitter / X
What’s banned is graphic content or adult nudity, private information, violence, hate speech, or illegal activities. You are also limited to 2,400 posts a day, should you want to send more than 100 an hour.
What you cannot post on Truth Social
Donald Trump’s own social media platform has a long list of banned activities, including:
What you cannot post on TikTok
The site can give warnings, strikes and then bans to users who do not comply with its guidelines. All offending material is taken down and the user is informed as to why.
Action can be taken over accounts that does not meet a minimum age, impersonates anotherm promotes exploitation, threatens violence, shows non consensual sex acts, facilitates human trafficking, or shows torture.
What you cannot post on Snapchat
A long list of rules again applies and outlaws sexual exploitation, threats of violence, hateful content and terrorism, bullying and illegal activities.
