2025 was the year of online safety laws – but do they work?
New laws in the UK, Australia and France were brought in during 2025 with the aim of protecting children from harmful content online, but experts remain divided on whether they will achieve this goal
Technology
New laws in the UK, Australia and France were brought in during 2025 with the aim of protecting children from harmful content online, but experts remain divided on whether they will achieve this goal
19 December 2025
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The way young people experience the internet is changing
Linda Raymond/Getty Images
Several countries around the world introduced new restrictions on internet access in 2025 to protect children from viewing harmful content, and others seem intent to follow suit in 2026. But do these measures really protect children or simply inconvenience adults?
The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) came into force on 25 July and forced websites to block children from seeing pornography and content that encourages self-harm, depicts violence or encourages dangerous stunts. The legislation has over the wide range of “harmful content” it covers, and it eventually caused a as the owners saw no way to comply with the heavy regulatory burden it brought.