New Online Safety Act offences come into force

New offences from the Online Safety Act have come into effect, meaning sharing fake news intended to cause non-trivial harm, encouraging others to self harm and other online abuse could now result in a prison sentence.

The offences include threatening messages, the non-consensual sharing of intimate images (revenge porn), and sending fake news that aims to cause non-trivial physical or psychological harm.

Technology secretary Michelle Donelan said: "From today, online abusers and trolls will be prosecuted and put behind bars for their cowardly and menacing acts – ensuring the public are protected and can have better peace of mind when online.

"Our pioneering Online Safety Act is already setting a global standard, and pivotal protections like these will keep sick individuals off our streets and unable to endanger Brits online."

Sending death threats or threatening serious harm online will carry a jail sentence of up to five years under the new ‘threatening communications’ offence that will make threats made online that would be illegal if said in person also illegal.

There is also a new false communications offence, which will outlaw the intentional sending of false information that could cause ‘non-trivial psychological’ or physical harm to users online. It is hoped this offence will clamp down on dangerous disinformation and election interference online.

People that encourage others to self-harm online could also face up to five years behind bars.

Richard Collard, associate head of child safety online at the NSPCC, said: "Children can be particularly vulnerable to content that encourages or assists self-harm and everything possible should be done to protect them from it while they are online.

"We hope this new offence will act as a deterrent to people deliberately spreading this extremely dangerous material. At the same time the focus must remain on tech companies and their duty under the Online Safety Act to design safety into their platforms and stop this content from being suggested and shared in the first place."

A new offence dubbed Zach's Law will mean that those that send or show flashing images electronically with the intention of causing harm to people with epilepsy will face prison.

Those who share, or threaten to share, intimate images on or offline without the consent of those depicted will face up to 6 months in prison, or 2 years if it is proven the perpetrator also intended to cause distress, alarm or humiliation, or shared the image to obtain sexual gratification.

Cyberflashing on dating apps, AirDrop and other platforms would be punished with up to two years behind bars where it is done to gain sexual gratification, or to cause alarm, distress or humiliation.