Pre-screening by Internet Providers

We accept the need to hold companies to account for removing, reporting and limiting the spread of child sexual abuse material on their services. The UK’s world- leading Online Safety Bill will address this by including the strongest duties for companies to identify and remove child sexual abuse content from their services. We expect the bill to receive Royal Assent this Parliamentary session.

The Online Safety Act contains provisions to address the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s recommendation. Under Section 121 of the Act, Ofcom has the power, where necessary and proportionate, to require regulated services to use accredited technology to detect and remove child sexual exploitation and abuse content, including in private or encrypted channels. Ofcom will be able to issue a tech notice once minimum standards for accredited technologies have been published and its accreditation scheme is in place. It will publish advice on minimum standards to the Secretary of State by April 2026.

The Government will take the following steps in relation to online pre-screening for child sexual abuse material: The Online Safety Act gives Ofcom the power to require the use of accredited technologies or best endeavours to deal with child sexual abuse content in private channels where necessary and proportionate. This is in addition to the measures in Ofcom’s illegal harms codes of practice that tackle child sexual abuse and grooming more widely. The Government is committed to an ongoing assessment of whether additional measures are needed to ensure that children are not exposed to content in private channels, which could include pre-screening or other device level interventions, including to tackle the rise in self-generated indecent imagery which forms a large percentage of online child sexual abuse material.