Schedules
Schedule 1Exempt user-to-user and search servicesSections 3 and 4
PART 1 Descriptions of services which are exempt
Email services
SMS and MMS services
Services offering only one-to-one live aural communications
Limited functionality services
- (a)posting comments or reviews relating to provider content;
- (b)sharing such comments or reviews on a different internet service;
- (c)expressing a view on such comments or reviews, or on provider content, by means of—
- (i)applying a “like” or “dislike” button or other button of that nature,
- (ii)applying an emoji or symbol of any kind,
- (iii)engaging in yes/no voting, or
- (iv)rating or scoring the content (or the comments or reviews) in any way (including giving star or numerical ratings);
- (i)
- (d)producing or displaying identifying content in connection with any of the activities described in paragraphs (a) to (c).
- (a)software or an automated tool or algorithm applied by the provider or by a person acting on behalf of the provider, or
- (b)an automated tool or algorithm made available on the service by the provider or by a person acting on behalf of the provider.
Services which enable combinations of user-generated content
- (a)content mentioned in paragraph 1, 2 or 3 and related identifying content;
- (b)content arising in connection with any of the activities described in paragraph 4(1).
Exception to exemptions in paragraphs 1 to 5
- (a)regulated provider pornographic content is published or displayed on the service, and
- (b)the service has links with the United Kingdom within the meaning of section 80(4).
Internal business services (entire user-to-user service or search service)
- (a)the user-to-user service or search service is an internal resource or tool for a business, or for more than one business carried on by the same person,
- (b)the person carrying on the business (or businesses) (“P”) is the provider of the user-to-user service or search service, and
- (c)the user-to-user service or search service is available only to a closed group of people comprising some or all of the following—
- (i)where P is an individual or individuals, that individual or those individuals,
- (ii)where P is an entity, officers of P,
- (iii)persons who work for P (including as employees or volunteers) for the purposes of any activities of the business (or any of the businesses) in question, and
- (iv)any other persons authorised by a person within sub-paragraph (i), (ii) or (iii) to use the service for the purposes of any activities of the business (or any of the businesses) in question (for example, a contractor, consultant or auditor, or in the case of an educational institution, pupils or students).
- (i)
- “business” includes trade, profession, educational institution or other concern (whether or not carried on for profit);
- “officer” includes a director, manager, partner, associate, secretary, governor, trustee or other similar officer.
Internal business services (part of user-to-user service or search service)
- (a)the conditions in paragraph 7(2) are met in relation to a part of the service,
- (b)no user-generated content is enabled by the rest of the service, and
- (c)no regulated provider pornographic content is published or displayed on the rest of the service.
- (a)the conditions in paragraph 7(2) are met in relation to a part of the service,
- (b)the only user-generated content enabled by the rest of the service is—
- (i)content mentioned in paragraph 1, 2 or 3 and related identifying content, or
- (ii)content arising in connection with any of the activities described in paragraph 4(1), and
- (i)
- (c)no regulated provider pornographic content is published or displayed on the rest of the service.
- (a)the conditions in paragraph 7(2) are met in relation to a part of the service that is a search engine,
- (b)the service does not include a public search engine, and
- (c)no regulated provider pornographic content is published or displayed on the rest of the service.
- “public search engine” means a search engine other than one in relation to which the conditions in paragraph 7(2) are met;
- “the rest of the service” means all parts of the user-to-user service or search service other than the part in relation to which the conditions in paragraph 7(2) are met.
Services provided by public bodies
- (a)both of the following conditions are met in relation to the service—
- (i)the provider of the service is a public authority within the meaning of section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998, and
- (ii)the service is provided in the exercise of public functions only,
- (i)
- (b)the provider of the service is Parliament, either House of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru, the Northern Ireland Assembly or a person acting on behalf of any of those institutions,
- (c)the provider of the service is a foreign sovereign power, or
- (d)both of the following conditions are met in relation to the service—
- (i)the provider of the service is an entity formed under the law of a country outside the United Kingdom, which exercises functions of a public nature, and
- (ii)the service is provided in the exercise of such functions only.
- (i)
- (a)the provider of the service is a person providing education or childcare, and
- (b)the service is provided for the purposes of that education or childcare.
See paragraph 10 for an exemption for services provided by persons providing education or childcare of particular descriptions.
Services provided by persons providing education or childcare
- (a)the provider of the service is—
- (i)the person with legal responsibility for education or childcare of a description listed in Part 2 of this Schedule (“the responsible person”), or where the responsible person is a body, a member of that body, or
- (ii)a person who is employed or engaged to provide education or childcare of a description listed in Part 2 of this Schedule, and who is subject to safeguarding duties which relate to the provision of that education or childcare, and
- (i)
- (b)the service is provided for the purposes of that education or childcare.
Interpretation
- “enactment” includes—
- (a)an enactment contained in subordinate legislation (within the meaning of the Interpretation Act 1978),
- (b)an enactment contained in, or in an instrument made under, an Act of the Scottish Parliament,
- (c)an enactment contained in, or in an instrument made under, a Measure or Act of Senedd Cymru, and
- (d)an enactment contained in, or in an instrument made under, Northern Ireland legislation;
- (a)
- “regulated provider pornographic content” and “published or displayed” have the same meaning as in Part 5 (see section 79);
- “user-generated content” has the meaning given by section 55 (see subsections (3) and (4) of that section).
PART 2 Paragraph 10 exemption: descriptions of education and childcare
England
- (a)an Academy school, within the meaning of section 1A of the Academies Act 2010;
- (b)an alternate provision Academy, within the meaning of section 1C of that Act;
- (c)a maintained school, within the meaning of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (see section 20(7) of that Act);
- (d)a non-maintained special school, being a school that is approved under section 342 of the Education Act 1996;
- (e)an independent educational institution registered on the register maintained under section 95 of the Education and Skills Act 2008;
- (f)a pupil referral unit, within the meaning of section 19 of the Education Act 1996.
- (a)an institution in England within the further education sector, within the meaning of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (see section 91(3) of that Act);
- (b)a 16 to 19 Academy, within the meaning of section 1B of the Academies Act 2010;
- (c)a special post-16 institution, within the meaning of Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (see section 83(2) of that Act).
- (a)that is a provider of post-16 education or training carried on, or partly carried on, in England—
- (i)to which Chapter 3 of Part 8 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (inspection of further education and training etc) applies, and
- (ii)which is funded, wholly or partly, by the Secretary of State, a local authority in England or a combined authority, but
- (i)
- (b)that is not—
- (i)an employer who only provides such education or training to its employees,
- (ii)a 16 to 19 Academy (within the meaning of section 1B of the Academies Act 2010),
- (iii)a school,
- (iv)a local authority in England,
- (v)an institution within the further education sector (within the meaning given by section 91(3) of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992), or
- (vi)a higher education provider (within the meaning given by section 83(1) of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017).
- (i)
- “combined authority” means a combined authority established under section 103 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009;
- “school” has the meaning given by section 4(1) of the Education Act 1996.
Scotland
- (a)a school, or
- (b)a hostel used mainly by pupils attending a school;
and in this paragraph “school” has the same meaning as in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (see section 135(1) of that Act).
Wales
- (a)funded or otherwise secured by the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research,
- (b)funded or otherwise secured by the Welsh Ministers, or
- (c)funded by a local authority in Wales (within the meaning of section 579(1) of the Education Act 1996).
- (a)an institution in Wales within the higher education sector, within the meaning of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (see section 91(5) of that Act), or
- (b)a person who is a provider of such education or training only by reason of providing it to the person’s employees.
Northern Ireland
PART 3 Interpretation
- (a)in relation to provision in England, has same meaning as in the Childcare Act 2006 (see section 18 of that Act);
- (b)in relation to provision in Scotland, means early learning and childcare within the meaning of Part 6 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (see section 46 of that Act), and any form of care provided outside school hours or during school holidays to children who are in attendance at an educational establishment (and in this paragraph, “educational establishment” has the same meaning as in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (see section 135(1) of that Act));
- (c)in relation to provision in Wales, means anything that amounts to child minding or day care for children for the purposes of Part 2 of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 (see section 19(2) to (4) of that Measure), and any form of care provided by a school outside school hours or during school holidays (and in this paragraph “school” has the same meaning as in the Education Act 1996 as it applies in relation to Wales (see section 4 of that Act));
- (d)in relation to provision in Northern Ireland, means anything that amounts to child minding or day care for the purposes of Part 11 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, and any form of care provided by a school outside school hours or during school holidays (and in this paragraph “school” has the same meaning as in the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order (see Article 2(2) of that Order)).
- (a)in relation to provision in England, Wales and Scotland, means primary education, secondary education, further education or higher education;
- (b)in relation to provision in Northern Ireland, means primary education, secondary education, further education, higher education or education in agriculture and related subjects.
- (a)in relation to provision in England and Wales, has the same meaning as in the Education Act 1996 (see section 2 of that Act);
- (b)in relation to provision in Scotland, has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 (see sections 1(3) and 6 of that Act);
- (c)in relation to provision in Northern Ireland, has the same meaning as in the Further Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 (see Article 3 of that Order).
- (a)in relation to provision in England and Wales, has the same meaning as in the Education Act 1996 (see section 579(1) of that Act);
- (b)in relation to provision in Scotland, has the same meaning as in Part 2 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 (see section 38 of that Act);
- (c)in relation to provision in Northern Ireland, means—
- (i)“higher education” within the meaning of the Further Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 (see Article 2(2) of that Order), and
- (ii)any other education provided by a higher education institution within the meaning of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1993 (S.I. 1993/2810 (N.I. 12)) (see Article 30 of that Order).
- (i)
- (a)in relation to provision in England and Wales, have the same meaning as in the Education Act 1996 (see section 2 of that Act);
- (b)in relation to provision in Scotland, have the same meaning as in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (see section 135(2) of that Act);
- (c)in relation to provision in Northern Ireland, have the same meaning as in the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (see Article 2(2) of that Order).
Amended text
This Schedule is shown as amended by The Online Safety Act 2023 (see the annotations below), as incorporated in the text in force on 19 September 2026 as published on legislation.gov.uk.
Annotations
Textual Amendments
- F1 Sch. 1 para. 36 substituted (1.4.2026) by The Online Safety Act 2023 (Exempt User-to-User and Search Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (W.S.I. 2026/69), regs. 1(2), 2
Commencement Information
- I1 Sch. 1 para. 1 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I2 Sch. 1 para. 2 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I3 Sch. 1 para. 3 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I4 Sch. 1 para. 4 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I5 Sch. 1 para. 5 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I6 Sch. 1 para. 6 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I7 Sch. 1 para. 7 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I8 Sch. 1 para. 8 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I9 Sch. 1 para. 9 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I10 Sch. 1 para. 10 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I11 Sch. 1 para. 11 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I12 Sch. 1 para. 12 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I13 Sch. 1 para. 13 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I14 Sch. 1 para. 14 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I15 Sch. 1 para. 15 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I16 Sch. 1 para. 16 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I17 Sch. 1 para. 17 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I18 Sch. 1 para. 18 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I19 Sch. 1 para. 19 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I20 Sch. 1 para. 20 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I21 Sch. 1 para. 21 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I22 Sch. 1 para. 22 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I23 Sch. 1 para. 23 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I24 Sch. 1 para. 24 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I25 Sch. 1 para. 25 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I26 Sch. 1 para. 26 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I27 Sch. 1 para. 27 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I28 Sch. 1 para. 28 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I29 Sch. 1 para. 29 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I30 Sch. 1 para. 30 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I31 Sch. 1 para. 31 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I32 Sch. 1 para. 32 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I33 Sch. 1 para. 33 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I34 Sch. 1 para. 34 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I35 Sch. 1 para. 35 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I36 Sch. 1 para. 36 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I37 Sch. 1 para. 37 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I38 Sch. 1 para. 38 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I39 Sch. 1 para. 39 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I40 Sch. 1 para. 40 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I41 Sch. 1 para. 41 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I42 Sch. 1 para. 42 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I43 Sch. 1 para. 43 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I44 Sch. 1 para. 44 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I45 Sch. 1 para. 45 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I46 Sch. 1 para. 46 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I47 Sch. 1 para. 47 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I48 Sch. 1 para. 48 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I49 Sch. 1 para. 49 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I50 Sch. 1 para. 50 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
- I51 Sch. 1 para. 51 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(a)
https://osa.digiphile.law/schedule/schedule-1.html
Text as at 19 September 2026.
This is an unofficial convenience version of the Online Safety Act 2023. It is presented “as is” without guarantee of accuracy, completeness or reliability. See the source text for the official version. This site was last updated in September 2026.