What is the Online Safety Code?
On 21st October 2024, we published our Online Safety Code.
The Code sets binding rules applying to video-sharing platforms who have their EU headquarters in Ireland. We will take a supervisory approach to enforcing the Code, ensuring that platforms implement appropriate systems to comply with the provisions of the Code.
The Code introduces obligations on video-sharing platforms to protect people, especially children, from harmful video and associated content, including:
- Prohibiting the uploading or sharing of harmful content on their services including cyberbullying, promoting self-harm or suicide and promoting eating or feeding disorders as well as incitement to hatred or violence, terrorism, child sex abuse material, racism and xenophobia.
- Using age assurance to prevent children from encountering pornography or gratuitous violence online and having age verification measures in place as appropriate.
- Providing parental controls for content which may impair the physical, mental, or moral development of children under 16.
These platforms will also have to ensure that they have ways for people to report content that breaks the rules, and act on those reports in line with their Terms and Conditions.
On the 16th of January 2024, we published our statutory register of designated relevant online services to which online safety codes can be applied.
Useful Documents
- Online Safety Code
- Online Safety Guidance Materials
- Response to Consultation and Final Decision: Online Safety Guidance Materials
- Response to Consultation and Decision: Application of the Online Safety Code to the Category of VSPS, including Notice of Determination to Apply the Code to the Category
- Determinations to apply the Online Safety Code to designated named services: Facebook; Instagram; LinkedIn; Pinterest; TikTok; Tumblr; Udemy; X; YouTube.