Charity Commission updates social media guidance to incorporate Online Safety Act 2023

Charity Commission updates social media guidance to incorporate Online Safety Act 2023

The Charity Commission has updated its social media guidance to reflect the introduction of the Online Safety Act 2023. The guidance now sets out that a charity may be required to comply with the Act and, if it does, that it must reflect in its social media policy how it will do so.

A charity must comply with the Online Safety Act if runs an online forum, namely any platform or messaging service where beneficiaries or other users can post content and/or communication with each other (or if it runs its own search services).

If a charity does have such a forum, the Act sets out that it must carry out an illegal content risk assessment (which must be kept up to date) and a children's access assessment, if relevant. There are also various record-keeping, safety and related duties to protect against illegal content.