UK Online Safety Act Transparency Reporting

Start by confirming whether the service is a regulated user-to-user service in one of the categories covered by Schedule 8. Transparency reports are the Ofcom-facing reports that set out how a service deals with online safety matters such as illegal content, content harmful to children, reporting and complaints systems, moderation, algorithms, and other safety measures.

For a useful internal answer, name the exact reporting trigger, the affected service, the information Ofcom can ask for, the owner, the evidence pack, and the date the report or notice response is due. Keep the Online Safety Act source, service-scope decision, risk assessment, children access assessment, code-of-practice mapping, and Ofcom-facing record together.

Ownership should sit with the team that can change service design, moderation, recommender systems, age assurance, reporting, complaints, terms, or transparency data, with legal and trust-safety review.

Evidence should show the service category, the transparency-reporting scope, the information Ofcom may require, the reporting workflow, and the records used to answer any notice on time.

Most Online Safety Act mistakes happen at the boundary between user-to-user, search, pornography, category, child-access, illegal-content, and transparency duties.

Use this section before launching a user feature, recommender change, moderation change, age-assurance flow, complaint process, or transparency-reporting process.

Use an Online Safety Act workflow that captures service scope, user groups, risk assessment, code mapping, child-access status, mitigation owner, evidence, and Ofcom escalation path.

The output should be a service-scope memo, risk assessment, children access assessment, mitigation plan, age-assurance decision, complaint workflow, or transparency-report evidence pack.