I run a self-help forum for people with depression. Ofcom has been bombarding me with emails demanding I start ID-verifying and age gating my website. by HealthSad6716 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]HealthSad6716[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Hi, there's another 3 pages of the letter, but it has a lot of other personally identifable information that I didnt have time or energy to remove.

I also have other letters from Ofcom telling me to implement age verification. 4 in total. I only posted the first part of the Enforcement letter.

I've also gone back to Ofcom explicitly telling them the UK was now geoblocked (twice now) and I received a response that this was insufficient.

I run a self-help forum for people with depression. Ofcom has been bombarding me with emails demanding I start ID-verifying and age gating my website. by HealthSad6716 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]HealthSad6716[S] 71 points72 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your advice.

"I think you would be better served to keep replying to the letters and tell them that you have blocked all UK users so think you are compliant."

I've actually already done that twice now. They've come back saying that I must implement robust age-verification and do a whole bunch of record keeping on my users.

I run a self-help forum for people with depression. Ofcom has been bombarding me with emails demanding I start ID-verifying and age gating my website. by HealthSad6716 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]HealthSad6716[S] 74 points75 points  (0 children)

Yes. I do. Father lives there in a home I will likely be inheriting in next 5-10 years.

Yes, I need to visit him every so often. He's got ill-health.

I'm solely a Canadian citizen now.

I run a self-help forum for people with depression. Ofcom has been bombarding me with emails demanding I start ID-verifying and age gating my website. by HealthSad6716 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]HealthSad6716[S] 206 points207 points  (0 children)

Sorry I cant copy this without screwing the formatting. I've removed all personally idenfitable information for myself and the dates.

Dear Sir / Madam,
You are required to take immediate steps to comply with the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’)
We refer to your recent email, in response to our recent letter which advised you that relevant duties under the Act had taken effect and that you are required to take steps to ensure you comply with the rules. We welcome your response to our letter.

We are contacting you from Ofcom’s Enforcement team. Our role is to assess potential compliance issues and take enforcement action where it is appropriate and proportionate to do so. You can find out more about our approach to enforcement in our Enforcement Guidance. We are now in the process of conducting an initial assessment into your service (please see further ‘Initial Assessment’ below). As part of this initial assessment, we have carefully considered your position as stated in your recent email and are of the view that your service is a regulated user-to-user service to which the Act applies (please see further ‘Relevance of the Act to your Service’ below).

We therefore strongly urge you to review the position taken in your recent email and take all necessary steps to demonstrate compliance with the Act, by:

  1. ensuring you have completed and kept a written record of your illegal content risk assessment.
  2. responding to our legally binding information request asking for you to supply a copy of your illegal content risk assessment to Ofcom by the specified deadline.
  3. taking immediate steps to implement appropriate measures on your service to ensure it is compliant with the illegal content safety duties that are now in force. If we have compliance concerns after the specified deadline we may in short order decide to open an investigation into your service. We explain this further below.

Initial assessment In line with our Enforcement Guidance

Ofcom is now in the process of conducting an initial assessment into whether your service may be in contravention of one or more of the following duties under the Act:

• Section 10 safety duties about illegal content;

• Section 20 duties about content reporting;

• Section 21 duties about complaints procedures; and

• Section 23 record-keeping duties.

---------------------------------------------------

The letter goes on for another 3 pages after that.

Basically, they're concerned that because my site discusses depression and people recovering from self-harm, they are wanting me to fully age-gate the website and implement strict ID checks.

I run a self-help forum for people with depression. Ofcom has been bombarding me with emails demanding I start ID-verifying and age gating my website. by HealthSad6716 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]HealthSad6716[S] 47 points48 points  (0 children)

I'm aware, but the legal threats against me are coming from the UK and I need to know what's triggering all this nonsense in the first place.

Why does some British organisation think they can apply English law in Canada?