GovWire

The government views internet infrastructure providers as vital to the internets effective functioning.

These 2 pieces of voluntary guidance underline the importance that we place on the role that internet infrastructure providers play in supporting efforts to effectively tackle illegal harms such as child sexual abuse and terrorism online. They are separate but complementary to the Online Safety Act 2023.

The voluntary guidance for preventing terrorism online sets out how infrastructure providers may wish to go beyond their existing legal obligations to take proactive steps to tackle terrorism content and terrorist exploitation of their services. This includes:

• safeguarding internet services and products against terrorist exploitation
• reducing the accessibility and operability of terrorist operated websites
• reducing the accessibility and availability of terrorism content online

The voluntary guidance for tackling online child sexual exploitation and abuse sets out steps that internet infrastructure providers can take to prevent child sexual abuse from happening by way of their services.

We encourage providers to consider how the guidance applies to their services, taking relevant and appropriate action where possible and necessary.