Online Safety Act 2023

4 “Regulated service”, “Part 3 service” etc U.K.

(1) This section applies for the purposes of this Act.

(2) A user-to-user service is a “regulated user-to-user service”, and a search service is a “regulated search service”, if the service—

(a) has links with the United Kingdom (see subsections (5) and (6)), and

(b) is not—

(i) a service of a description that is exempt as provided for by Schedule 1, or

(ii) a service of a kind described in Schedule 2 (services combining user-generated content or search content not regulated by this Act with pornographic content that is regulated).

(3) “Part 3 service” means a regulated user-to-user service or a regulated search service.

(4) “Regulated service” means—

(a) a regulated user-to-user service,

(b) a regulated search service, or

(c) an internet service, other than a regulated user-to-user service or a regulated search service, that is within section 80(2) (including a service of a kind described in Schedule 2).

(5) For the purposes of subsection (2), a user-to-user service or a search service “has links with the United Kingdom” if—

(a) the service has a significant number of United Kingdom users, or

(b) United Kingdom users form one of the target markets for the service (or the only target market).

(6) For the purposes of subsection (2), a user-to-user service or a search service also “has links with the United Kingdom” if—

(a) the service is capable of being used in the United Kingdom by individuals, and

(b) there are reasonable grounds to believe that there is a material risk of significant harm to individuals in the United Kingdom presented by—

(i) in the case of a user-to-user service, user-generated content present on the service or (if the service includes a search engine) search content of the service;

(ii) in the case of a search service, search content of the service.

(7) A regulated user-to-user service that includes a public search engine is referred to in this Act as a “combined service”.

“Public search engine” means a search engine other than one in relation to which the conditions in paragraph 7(2) of Schedule 1 (internal business service conditions) are met.

(8) In this section—

• “search content” has the same meaning as in Part 3 (see section 57);

• “user-generated content” has the meaning given by section 55 (see subsections (3) and (4) of that section).

Commencement Information

I1 S. 4 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)