Platforms Face Stricter Rules on Self-Harm Content Under UK Online Regulation

The change would elevate self-harm material to the same category as terrorism and child abuse content.

File photograph of a child using a laptop computer, on May 26, 2022. Dominic Lipinski/PA Media

The UK government will compel online platforms to proactively detect and remove self-harm content before it reaches users, under the Online Safety Act.

The Online Safety Act (OSA) already required platforms to remove illegal content, including certain forms of suicide and self-harm encouragement, once they were aware of it.

The new regulations proposed by the ruling Labour government on Sept 8 mean that content encouraging or assisting serious self-harm will be treated as a priority offence, meaning that platforms must proactively prevent and detect it using tools like algorithms, filters, and monitoring.

Hailed by the UK government as the world’s first online safety law, the OSA became law in October 2023, with key measures continuing to be phased in.

Measures related to regulating illegal content took effect in March 2025. The act requires online platforms to implement measures to protect people in the UK from criminal activity, with far-reaching implications for internet governance.

The government said that the change regarding self-harm content will “trigger the strongest possible legal protections, compelling platforms to use cutting-edge technology to actively seek out and eliminate this content before it can reach users and cause irreparable harm, rather than simply reacting after someone has already been exposed to it.”

The OSA lists more than 130 priority offences, some of which include content relating to child sexual abuse, terrorism, fraud, extreme pornography, coercive control, inciting violence, intimate image abuse, and terrorism.

The proposals need approval from both houses of Parliament. The change is expected to come into force this Autumn.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said in a Sept. 8 statement that the government is determined to keep people safe online.

“Vile content that promotes self-harm continues to be pushed on social media and can mean potentially heart-wrenching consequences for families across the country,” Kendall said. “Our enhanced protections will make clear to social media companies that taking immediate steps to keep users safe from toxic material that could be the difference between life and death is not an option, but the law.”

Julie Bentley, chief executive of suicide prevention charity the Samaritans, welcomed the move.

“While the internet can be a source of support for people who are struggling, damaging suicide and self-harm content can cost people their lives,” she said in the same Sept. 8 statement.

Under the OSA, regulated service providers had until 16 March 2025 to carry out illegal-content risk assessments, which included a duty to remove illegal content quickly when they become aware of it, including content that encourages suicidal and self-harm behaviours.

In April, Ofcom, the tech regulator policing the act, launched an investigation into whether the provider of an online suicide forum failed to comply.

Under the act, social media platforms and other user-to-user service providers must also proactively police their sites for content.

For dozens of smaller UK websites—covering everything from cycling, hobbies, and hamster care to support for divorced fathers—regulatory pressure is proving too much, and the many rules are forcing some long-running chat forums, in some cases decades old, to shut down.

Some of the rules for owners of these sites, which are often operated by individuals, include keeping written records of their risk assessments, detailing levels of risk, and assessing the “nature and severity of potential harm to individuals.”

While terrorism and child sexual exploitation may be straightforward offenses to assess and mitigate, coercive and controlling behavior and hate offenses are more challenging to manage in forums that have thousands of users.

Dee Kitchen, who developed Microcosm, a platform for running nonprofit forums such as London Fixed Gear and Single Speed (LFGSS), said at the end of last year that the act would force him to close 300 small communities.

“On Sunday 16th March 2025 (the last day prior to the Act taking effect) I will delete the virtual servers hosting LFGSS and other communities, and effectively immediately end the approximately 300 small communities that I run, and the few large communities such as LFGSS,” Kitchen said in a December 2024 forum post. “We’re done ... we fall firmly into scope, and ... have no way to dodge it.”

He said that the law “makes the site owner liable for everything that is said by anyone on the site they operate.”

“The act is too broad, and it doesn’t matter that there’s never been an instance of any of the proclaimed things that this act protects adults, children and vulnerable people from ... the very broad language and the fact that I’m based in the UK means we’re covered,” he said.

LFGSS, a popular cycling forum and resource for nearly two decades, appeared to be still online as of publication time.

In a recent post, Kitchen said he handed over all ownership of the site, systems, services, and everything involved “to a collective of volunteers.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Kitchen for further comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

U.S. sites are also blocking users in the UK because of the legislation.

If you need support in the United Kingdom, call the Samaritans hotline on 116 123 or email [email protected].

In the United States, the CDC encourages people to call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline if they experience mental health stress or know about a loved one undergoing such situations.

Calling 988 puts the caller in contact with a trained crisis counselor. The service is free and confidential. Alternatively, people can chat with experts at 988lifeline.org.

If you’re in an emergency in the United States or Canada, please call 911.