"Ofcom said the site did not comply with the Online Safety Act (OSA) "to protect people in the UK from illegal content". Ofcom Director of Enforcement Suzanne Cater said the forum had made some attempts to block UK users but this was "not good enough and the changes they've made were not consistently applied or effective to reduce the risk of harm"."
"It is a criminal offence in the UK to intentionally encourage or assist suicide, and the OSA requires chatroom providers to mitigate the risks of UK users seeing this type of content on their platforms. Ofcom said the site was accessible by people in the UK without the use of a VPN, which is a common way of getting around blocks in one country."
"The online safety charity's chief executive Andy Burrows added it had "submitted detailed evidence which showed scores of vulnerable young people remained at risk while Ofcom's investigation dragged on. "Further lives were lost during this period"."
"Its investigation ran from March 2025 to April 2026 and was the first of its type under the OSA. Ofcom said it had "engaged extensively" with the forum provider throughout. The BBC and Ofcom chose not to name the website."
A pro-suicide online forum linked to at least 50 deaths was fined 950,000 by the UK media regulator Ofcom. Ofcom said the forum did not comply with the Online Safety Act requirements to protect people in the UK from illegal content. Ofcom stated that attempts to block UK users were not consistently applied or effective in reducing harm risk. The regulator said the site was accessible in the UK without a VPN. The investigation ran from March 2025 to April 2026 and was the first of its type under the Online Safety Act. A charity criticized the timeline, saying vulnerable young people remained at risk while the investigation proceeded. UK law makes it a criminal offence to intentionally encourage or assist suicide, and chatroom providers must mitigate risks of users seeing such content.
Read at www.bbc.com
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