Legislation – Online Safety Act 2023

There are currently no known outstanding effects for the Online Safety Act 2023, Cross Heading: Search services: which duties apply, and scope of duties.

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PART 3Providers of regulated user-to-user services and regulated search services: duties of care

CHAPTER 3Providers of search services: duties of care

Search services: which duties apply, and scope of duties

24Providers of search services: duties of care

(1)

Subsections (2) to (4) apply to determine which of the duties set out in this Chapter must be complied with by providers of regulated search services.

(2)

All providers of regulated search services must comply with the following duties in relation to each such service which they provide—

(a)

the duties about illegal content risk assessments set out in section 26,

(b)

the duties about illegal content set out in section 27(2) to (8),

(c)

the duty about content reporting set out in section 31,

(d)

the duties about complaints procedures set out in section 32,

(e)

the duties about freedom of expression and privacy set out in section 33, and

(f)

the duties about record-keeping and review set out in section 34(2) to (6).

(3)

Additional duties must be complied with by providers of particular kinds of regulated search services, as follows.

(4)

All providers of regulated search services that are likely to be accessed by children must comply with the following duties in relation to each such service which they provide—

(a)

the duties about children’s risk assessments set out in section 28, and

(b)

the duties to protect children’s online safety set out in section 29(2) to (8).

(5)

All providers of regulated search services that are Category 2A services must comply with the following duties in relation to each such service which they provide—

(a)

the duty about illegal content risk assessments set out in section 27(9),

(b)

the duty about children’s risk assessments set out in section 29(9), and

(c)

the duty about record-keeping set out in section 34(9).

(6)

For the meaning of “likely to be accessed by children”, see section 37.

(7)

For the meaning of “Category 2A service”, see section 95 (register of categories of services).

25Scope of duties of care

(1)

A duty set out in this Chapter which must be complied with in relation to a search service extends only to—

(a)

the search content of the service,

(b)

the design, operation and use of the search engine in the United Kingdom, and

(c)

in the case of a duty that is expressed to apply in relation to users of a service, the design, operation and use of the search engine as it affects United Kingdom users of the service.

(2)

For the purposes of the application of this Chapter in relation to the search engine of a combined service (see section 7(6))—

(a)

a duty set out in this Chapter which requires a matter to be included in a publicly available statement may be satisfied by including the matter in the terms of service;

(b)

references in this Chapter (except in section 24) to a search service are to be read as references to the search engine;

(c)

references in this Chapter (except in section 24) to the provider of a search service are to be read as references to the provider of the combined service.