Artifact GuideUKIllegal Content Risk Assessment

UK Online Safety Act Illegal Content Risk Assessment

Illegal Content Risk Assessment decisions under the UK Online Safety Act should be written in operational language: who is in scope, what must happen, what evidence proves it, and when escalation is needed.

Use this guide to turn official requirements into scope, evidence, owner, and review decisions. This guidance is practical, source-linked, and should be validated against current legal and policy requirements before implementation.

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Author

Sorena AI

Published

May 9, 2026

Updated

May 9, 2026

Sections

Structured answer sets in this page tree.

Primary sources

Cited legal and guidance references.

Publication metadata

Sorena AI

Published May 9, 2026

Updated May 9, 2026

Overview

Providers of regulated user-to-user services and regulated search services must carry out an illegal content risk assessment, and the assessment timing depends on whether the service is already in operation or is starting up under the Online Safety Act. This page helps you determine when the duty applies, who owns each action, the required evidence, and the review path before escalation.

Section 1

How should a Illegal Content Risk Assessment workflow run under the UK Online Safety Act?

Run the workflow as online-safety triage: service scope, user group, risk duty, code mapping, mitigation, evidence, owner, deadline, and Ofcom escalation.

Capture the request, product, role, data flow, jurisdiction, and deadline.
Check the source-linked rule and route exceptions before implementation.
Record the action taken, owner, reviewer, evidence location, and next review date.
Keep a plain-language output that support, product, legal, security, and compliance teams can all understand.

Sources for this answer

Online Safety Act - Illegal Content Codes of Practice 2024: explanatory memorandum

Explains Ofcom's illegal-content codes of practice and the related duties that an illegal-content risk assessment workflow should map to owners and evidence.

UK Government - Online Safety Act explainer

Workflow support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

Online Safety Act: Protection of Children Codes of Practice - explanatory memorandum

Workflow support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

Section 2

What fields should the Illegal Content Risk Assessment template capture?

A useful template captures service type, user group, risk type, child-access result, code measure, mitigation owner, evidence, review date, and unresolved assumptions.

Source URL and source quote.
Entity, product, service, system, data category, and user group.
Decision result, control action, owner, reviewer, due date, and escalation reason.
Evidence attachment, approval note, exception note, and review cadence.

Sources for this answer

UK Government - Online Safety Act explainer

Template field support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

Online Safety Act: Protection of Children Codes of Practice - explanatory memorandum

Template field support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

UK Government - Online Safety Act collection

Template field support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

Section 3

How should teams review and improve the Illegal Content Risk Assessment workflow?

Review the workflow after Ofcom code updates, feature changes, algorithm changes, user-base changes, incident trends, complaints, enforcement notices, or transparency-report cycles.

Track recurring exception categories and update intake questions.
Remove fields that never affect the decision.
Add fields when reviews show missing source evidence or unclear ownership.
Confirm generated markdown and page content include the same visible source-linked guidance.

Sources for this answer

Online Safety Act - Illegal Content Codes of Practice 2024: explanatory memorandum

Review support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

UK Government - Online Safety Act explainer

Review support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

Online Safety Act: Protection of Children Codes of Practice - explanatory memorandum

Review support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

UK Government - Online Safety Act collection

Review support for Illegal Content Risk Assessment.

Recommended next step

Turn UK Online Safety Act Illegal Content Risk Assessment into assigned work

Use this UK Online Safety Act guide to turn Illegal Content Risk Assessment into owners, evidence requests, review checkpoints, and reusable operating records inside Sorena.

Assessment workflow

Open Assessment Autopilot for UK Online Safety Act

Turn Illegal Content Risk Assessment into scoped questions, evidence fields, and review tasks.

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Research workflow

Review UK Online Safety Act source evidence

Use Research Copilot to answer follow-up questions with cited source material.

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Talk to Sorena

Talk through implementation

Review scope, evidence, owners, and the next compliance actions with Sorena.

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