Ofcom has launched a consultation on proposed changes to its guidance following the designation of new ‘priority offences’ under the Online Safety Act 2023.

As we have reported previously, the Government recently announced that the offences of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm and cyberflashing were added to the list of ‘priority offences’. These are the most serious forms of illegal online content, against which regulated services must take specific proactive measures to prevent such content appearing on their platforms in the first place, and for which they should have proportionate systems in place to minimise the length of time during which it is present.

In order to reflect this change, Ofcom is consulting on a number of proposed changes to its regulatory documents and guidance which would, in turn, require regulated services to update their risk assessments.

In the case of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, Ofcom proposes combining it with the offence of encouraging or assisting suicide to create a new single illegal harm of ‘suicide and self-harm’. Services would therefore be expected to assess both types of harm under this heading and assign one overall risk level. At the same time, updates to the risk factors in the User-to-User Risk Profile for this type of harm are proposed to include group messaging, direct messaging, and commenting on content.

Cyberflashing, meanwhile, would be its own distinct category of harm with its own risk factors, which regulated services would have to assess separately from other illegal harms.

The consultation closes on 24 April 2026 and can be read in full here.