UK OSA Section 12(2)-(3) and 12(8)(f)-(g) - Control functionalities and user support as areas for proportionate children's s…
Provide children and parents with safety management tools including parental controls, content filters, contact management, and usage tools
Where this comes from
Provision: Section 12(2)-(3) and 12(8)(f)-(g) - Control functionalities and user support as areas for proportionate children's safety measures
Instrument: UK Online Safety Act 2023
Citation: Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, s 12(2)-(3) with s 12(8)(f) (functionalities allowing for control over content that is encountered, especially by children) and s 12(8)(g) (user support measures); s 12(11) (terms-of-service details where access by children under a certain age is prevented); s 13(1) (proportionality); s 20(4) (reporting content harmful to children). Section 15 is the ADULT user empowerment duty for Category 1 services and is not the basis of this record.
Text version: Online Safety Act 2023 c. 50, revised text as displayed on legislation.gov.uk on 2026-09-21 ('up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 21 September 2026'), including the amendments made by the Crime and Policing Act 2026 in force from 29 June 2026 (S.I. 2026/689) and s 66 in force from 7 April 2026 (S.I. 2026/262). The as-enacted text is superseded.
Who it applies to
Child audience (designed for OR likely accessed by children) — any one of these:
- Service is specifically designed for children under 18
- Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18
Remaining applicability scope — all of these:
- Youngest user age is Under 13 or 13-15
- Service requires/offers account registration
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Implementation or documented process meets the reviewed acceptance criteria; identify the tested version and deployment status separately
- Configure defaults from the assessed source and purpose; do not enable data collection or processing merely because this task exists
- Validate behavior for the assessed actors and use cases, including applicable guest or administrator paths
- UI clearly communicates what the feature does to users
- API returns appropriate error codes when feature blocks an action
Questions people ask
- Does UK OSA Section 12(2)-(3) and 12(8)(f)-(g) - Control functionalities and user… apply to my service?
- It applies when at least one of: Service is specifically designed for children under 18; Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18; and Youngest user age is Under 13 or 13-15; Service requires/offers account registration.
- From when does this apply?
- UK OSA Section 12(2)-(3) and 12(8)(f)-(g) - Control functionalities and user… applies from 10 January 2024. Its current status is: in force.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.