Digital regulation | UK Regulatory Outlook October 2026

Online safety and age assurance 

European Commission opens call for feedback on EU KIDS ACT 

In September 2026, the European Commission published its legislative proposal for the EU KIDS ACT, which restricts children's access to social media, video-sharing platforms and some other digital services, including online games. The proposal would ban social media and video-sharing platforms for under-13s; introduce "mini" accounts for these services with limited features for 13-15-year-olds with parental supervision; and provide that autonomous accounts can only be opened by 15-year-olds where the platforms are "safe by design", as set out in the legislation. See this Insight for more information. 

The Commission has now opened a call for feedback on its proposed regulation, allowing individuals and organisations to submit their views via its website. It will consider all feedback and present summaries to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to feed into the legislative negotiations. The call, which closes on 3 December 2026, has already received over two and a half thousand responses. 

Science and Technology Committee launches inquiry into technology-facilitated abuse 

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has launched an inquiry examining the role of digital platforms in enabling, detecting and preventing online abuse, including stalking, harassment, coercive control and non-consensual intimate image abuse. 

The committee says that while the government has taken steps to address some forms of technology-facilitated abuse through its violence against women and girls' strategy and the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA), other existing legal and regulatory frameworks do not necessarily remain fit for purpose. The inquiry will focus primarily on digital abuse and online platforms, exploring the effectiveness of regulatory and technical interventions and the evidence needed to better understand emerging forms of digital abuse. 

As part of the inquiry, it has opened a call for evidence, which closes on 4 November 2026. 

UK Online Safety Act updates  

Ofcom publishes amendments to codes of practice on crisis protocols 

Ofcom has published a statement setting out new measures to be included in the Illegal Content Codes of Practice and the Protection of Children Codes of Practice for user-to-user and search services in relation to service providers responding appropriately to a crisis event.  

The amendments recommend that service providers prepare and apply a crisis protocol to mitigate and manage risks arising from a significant increase in relevant illegal content (such as content associated with terrorism, hate, harassment, stalking, threats and abuse) and/or content harmful to children (such as abusive content, content inciting hatred or violent content) on their services. See this Regulatory Outlook for the background. The amendments come into force on 2 November 2026. 

New priority offences brought into force by Crime and Policing Act  

The Crime and Policing Act 2026 (CPA), which received royal assent on 29 April 2026, created several new criminal offences relating to the possession and publication of certain pornographic images and designated them as "priority offences" under schedule 7 of the OSA. See this Insight for more information.  

The government has now made the secondary legislation necessary to bring these provisions into force in the form of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2026. The new criminal offences relating to the possession or publication of pornographic images of strangulation or suffocation, sex between relatives, and sexual activity with a child under 16 come into force on 6 November 2026.  

The offences will become "priority offences" under the OSA once Ofcom has amended its OSA codes of practice and laid them before Parliament. If no objections to the amendments are raised, Ofcom will publish the amended codes and the new priority offences will come into effect 21 days after that.