UK Online Safety Act: Ofcom Publishes Illegal Content Enforcement Guidance

Ofcom published final guidance on 14 October 2026 setting out how platforms must prevent users from encountering illegal content under the UK Online Safety Act, with specific requirements for child sexual abuse material, grooming and other child-exploitation offences. The guidance establishes that Category 1 and Category 2A services must deploy proactive technology to identify and remove CSAM and prevent contact-based offences such as grooming, and mandates systems that can detect harmful patterns of behaviour even in encrypted or ephemeral messaging environments.

Mandating that platforms deploy technology to detect harm before it reaches a child is a direct recognition that abuse occurs in private conversation, not public feed. The Guardii platform, a Meta Business Partner backed by Startmate, detects sustained targeting, escalation and coercion in real-time direct messages across major platforms, with purpose-built filters for anti-grooming, anti-sextortion and anti-CSAM detection including AI-generated material, reporting the seriousness and shape of a conversation rather than its content and enabling rapid escalation to the appropriate authority.