UK Online Safety Regulations and impact on Forums

Does anyone want to make a bet with me?

That no genuine, niche hobby forum with less than 50,000, active users will receive a substantial fine in the next three years.

Of course the niche must be about hamsters, cycling, gardening, photography etc or similar legal hobbies. I'm confident they won't so I'll give odds of 5 to 1. The book is open. ;)
 
Mr Lucky said:
They have no idea!
Click to expand...

Pah, what is a few thousand, small change, and I am sure all small site adminstrators have a week or two spare to write all of the documentation, set up formal complaints processes, develop new software and keep in check with all the new details that come online. I don't know why we are grumbling ;-)

JamesBrown said:
Does anyone want to make a bet with me?

That no genuine, niche hobby forum with less than 50,000, active users will receive a substantial fine in the next three years.
Click to expand...

I think you are on a fairly safe bet there. Most small UK forums are well run and reality the risks from them are negligible. I think a good few will close down though and the smaller and more niche they are the more likely they are to throw in the towel. It will only take one complaint to Ofcom from a disgruntled user to effectively shutdown many of these forums.
 
rogerl said:
It will only take one complaint to Ofcom from a disgruntled user to effectively shutdown many of these forums.
Click to expand...
I think that is a (perhaps the) real risk, and basically the mitigation is trust in OFCOM.

Going by how this has been handled, along with some previous experience, my confidence there is quite low...
 
chillibear said:
Well the hamsters made the news! Telegraph: Hamster forum and local residents’ websites shut down by new internet laws

At least the bit from Ofcom says:

And you will no doubt be pleased to know:
Click to expand...
Yes I saw it. Shame it only got national publicity after closing. Some former members have written to their MP's complaining at what the Gov has done. The articles page is still live. The reality is - children did view that site, even if they weren't registered. And I couldn't guarantee some spammer or disgruntled member not posting something very inappropriate - or seeing it in time. But that was my feeling on it anyway.

Hope the news story has done some good anyway - maybe it'll help change the odd thing. I only came across it by accident - didn't know anything about it. They took the quote from the online home page.
 
You know one thing I think this legislation fails to do is put the onus on PARENTS! Rather than websites themselves. Parental control settings, screentime restrictions, and just actually monitoring things. Yes some nasty stuff needs restricting but - I am sure parent members on the Hamster Forum showed the site to their kids but that was their choice and their responsibility. Although I could also imagine a parent member making a complaint if something inappopriate slipped through as well.
 
@Alvin63 your forum unfortunately had to close due to this awful legislation, but know that your articles continue to do good in the world. As a cat person, I've just started a thread based on one of them. :)

Which are more territorial, house cats or cute little hamsters?

Surely our beloved house / miniature cats, because they're known to be very territorial, they roam, can kill hundreds of birds and small rodents during their lifetimes and can easily injure a human if they become aggressive, while hamsters live in cages indoors, right? Nope, it's the cute little...
nerdzone.uk nerdzone.uk
 
FTL said:
@Alvin63 your forum unfortunately had to close due to this awful legislation, but know that your articles continue to do good in the world. As a cat person, I've just started a thread based on one of them. :)

Which are more territorial, house cats or cute little hamsters?

Surely our beloved house / miniature cats, because they're known to be very territorial, they roam, can kill hundreds of birds and small rodents during their lifetimes and can easily injure a human if they become aggressive, while hamsters live in cages indoors, right? Nope, it's the cute little...
nerdzone.uk nerdzone.uk
Click to expand...
Cheers. Yep cats and hamsters don't mix well :-) But hamsters kill each other too - they're not meant to share the same space as they're territorial. Yes I am quite proud of the articles page and it was very popular and helped people. I will keep it online.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FTL
JamesBrown said:
Did it though?
Click to expand...
Best ask @Alvin63 that. Here's his announcement of the closure:

www.thehamsterforum.com

Forum Closure

It is with huge sadness that the forum has closed on 16th March 2025 due to the requirements of the new legislation - the Online Safety Act. While this forum has always been perfectly safe, we were unable to meet the compliancy. The care guide...
www.thehamsterforum.com www.thehamsterforum.com
 
FTL said:
Best ask @Alvin63 that. Here's his announcement of the closure:
Click to expand...

Forums close all the time. I'm not referring to any forum in particular, but I think for some, this was a convenient hook to hang a closure on. I will be surprised if I see any, successful niche forums closing because of the bit of work this legislation involves.

But it will be a different story for those forums that are in decline or have tired/bored owners looking for a way to flounce out.
 
rogerl said:
It will only take one complaint to Ofcom from a disgruntled user to effectively shutdown many of these forums.
Click to expand...

That would be terrible, but talk me through the scenario. Let's say I run a goldfish forum. How could this disgruntled user get the forum closed down?
 
JamesBrown said:
That would be terrible, but talk me through the scenario. Let's say I run a goldfish forum. How could this disgruntled user get the forum closed down?
Click to expand...
Theoretically...

www.bbc.co.uk

Mumsnet: Parenting site targeted with child sexual abuse images

Company founder Justine Roberts tells the BBC the "horrific incident" has been reported to the police.
www.bbc.co.uk

But closure and the forum size be it a small goldfish forum or a forum like the one above with nine million unique visitors a month is for the most part irrelevant, that's not what's at issue. The problem is a potential lack of compliance and the subsequent fine or in extreme cases the threat of prosecution.

Ofcom has said that for small sites, the costs of complying "are likely to be negligible or in the small thousands at most".

Assuming you are able to work your way though and understand OFCOM's many thousands of pages of advice and subsequent toolkits designed to aid compliance (most can't, hence the 30 pages of posts in this thread) hobby forum owners don't have thousands large or small to pay for compliance, probably don't have the time, inclination or even in most cases the understanding to pass first base and create a risk assessment in order to satisfy the act.

Enter the disgruntled user... and that's just one scenario. Only time will tell if this is something that belongs in a dystopian novel or merely nothing much at all.

​

 
zappaDPJ said:
Only time will tell if this is something that belongs in a dystopian novel or merely nothing much at all.
Click to expand...

Nothing much at all I reckon. Just like time told us about GDPR, that was going to end us all. We had far more than 30 pages about that, too.
 
JamesBrown said:
Nothing much at all I reckon. Just like time told us about GDPR, that was going to end us all. We had far more than 30 pages about that, too.
Click to expand...
GDPR was comparably simple to understand and implement, and because its adoption was almost universal most software providers developed the tools to implement it. That said the penalties handed down since its implementation have been staggering. They range from 1.2 billion euros for big tech to a few thousand for private individuals. Germany has been particular aggressive in handing out fines.

Don't get me wrong, I take your point, this might amount to nothing much especially if your site is able to implement everything necessary to satisfy the act but a fast growing number of small site owners don't see it that way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom