Online Safety Act 2023

36 Duties about children’s access assessments

(1) A provider of a Part 3 service must carry out the first children’s access assessment at a time set out in, or as provided by, Schedule 3.

(2) Subsections (3) and (4) apply to a provider of a Part 3 service during any period when the service is not treated as likely to be accessed by children (see section 37).

(3) The provider must carry out children’s access assessments of the service not more than one year apart.

(4) The provider must carry out a children’s access assessment of the service—

(a) before making any significant change to any aspect of the service’s design or operation to which such an assessment is relevant,

(b) in response to evidence about reduced effectiveness of age verification or age estimation that is used on the service as mentioned in section 35(2), or

(c) in response to evidence about a significant increase in the number of children using the service.

(5) If a person is the provider of more than one Part 3 service, children’s access assessments must be carried out for each service separately.

(6) Children’s access assessments must be suitable and sufficient for the purposes of this Part.

(7) A provider must make and keep a written record, in an easily understandable form, of every children’s access assessment.