The Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) is a new set of laws which aims to protect people from certain harms online. It’s stated aim is to put new duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for their users’ safety on their platforms. However, the wording of the law is so broad – it targets any platform run in or from the UK that allows user to user communication – that the WLFHS forum is clearly in scope. That means that to remain “legal” we would have to:
All under the threat of up to an £18 million fine should our compliance be found wanting. Given the low usage of the forum, the time and effort that would be needed to remain compliant – keeping in mind that the information OFCOM are publishing on this is very much a moving target – it simply isn’t worth continuing to run the forum.
Should members have a Family History question that they want assistance with, they are reminded that we have an mailbox which is checked regularly by the volunteers, and questions which might have been posted in the forum can be sent here instead.