UK Online Safety Act: Ofcom publishes guidance on illegal content duties

Ofcom has published final guidance clarifying how platforms must comply with illegal content duties under the Online Safety Act, including requirements to prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse material. The guidance details risk assessment obligations, proactive technology deployment expectations, and reporting mechanisms that platforms must implement by January 2027.

For platforms subject to these duties, meeting the proactive detection standard presents a structural challenge: content moderation at scale requires technology capable of identifying harm patterns in real time without wholesale surveillance. Guardii's anti-CSAM and anti-grooming modules operate at the point of contact, flagging conversations that exhibit coercion, escalation or exploitation signals before material is shared or a child is drawn into unsafe interaction, enabling platforms to satisfy their duty of care while preserving the privacy of benign exchanges.