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UK Online Safety Act becomes law, making sharing deepfake intimate images a crime
See how this story connectsThe Online Safety Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023, giving Ofcom power to fine platforms up to £18 million or 10% of global annual revenue. Platforms must remove illegal content, keep children from harmful content and use age checks. The Act also makes sharing non-consensual intimate deepfakes an offence, with up to two years in prison for sharing to cause distress or for sexual gratification.
Why it matters
Services used in the UK, including those hosting AI-generated content, now answer to Ofcom on child safety and illegal content, and people who share sexual deepfakes face prosecution.
- When
- 26 Oct 2023
- ID
WTA-N-2023-0105- Where
- United Kingdom
- Who
- Ofcom, DSIT
- Topics
- Children and teens, Deepfakes
- Rules involved
- OSA intimate image (incl. deepfake) sharing offences United Kingdom, In force
Summary by wheresthe.ai, from GOV.UK. Checked against the source on 9 Oct 2026.
Source copy: download the page as saved on 18 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.
Cite this story
WTA-N-2023-0105: “UK Online Safety Act becomes law, making sharing deepfake intimate images a crime.” wheresthe.ai, 26 Oct 2023. https://wheresthe.ai/d/gb-online-safety-act-royal-assent-2023-10/ (source: GOV.UK).
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