New polling shows strong public support for OSA - but concern at delays to implementation

As MPs prepare to debate a petition to “repeal the Online Safety Act”, new research, commissioned by Clean Up The Internet and conducted by Opinium, suggests that calls to repeal the OSA are significantly out of step with public opinion.

The opinion polling, conducted 28th November to 2nd December 2025, asked a representative sample of UK adults a series of questions about the Online Safety Act. It found that:

• 70% are supportive of the Online Safety Act (vs 12% opposed)

• 49% think its implementation is too slow (vs 10% too fast)

• 71% consider fake and anonymous social media accounts are a serious problem, with 62% concerned about Ofcom’s decision to further delay implementation of the OSA’s user verification duties

Whilst the “repeal the OSA” petition has received over 500,000 signatures, and the support of some politicians as well as far-right influencers such as “Tommy Robinson”, it does not  - appear to reflect a broader groundswell of opposition. Notably, the polling suggests strong public support for the OSA across supporters of all political parties, including those parties more critical of the OSA. Respondents who support Reform UK also express support for the OSA, by a margin of 60% to 22%.

Alongside finding very low levels of opposition to the OSA, the research identifies a much more significant degree of dissatisfaction with the slow pace at which it is being implemented by Ofcom.

Worryingly, only 19% of respondents consider online safety to have improved since the Act was passed, compared to 24% believing it has got worse. There may be some encouragement in the fact that parents with children under 18 are more likely to consider safety to have improved, with 33% reporting an improvement and only 19% reporting things had got worse. This could suggest that child safety measures, such as Age Verification to prevent children encountering adult content, are starting to make a difference.

However, 2 years after the OSA became law, twice as many people (37% vs 19%) are reporting having experienced no change in online safety than are reporting an improvement. This surely raises questions about the pace of progress. Almost half of respondents (49%) felt that implementation is too slow (vs only 10% who consider it too fast).

Last month, Ofcom announced yet another delay to the implementation of duties on the largest, “Category One” platforms, including the user verification duty - with these measures now not expected to be implemented until “mid-2027. This further delay to user verification measures is not popular with the public. 71% consider fake and anonymous social media accounts to be a serious problem. 62% stated that they were concerned about Ofcom’s decision to delay the implementation of user verification measures.

Clean Up The Internet would suggest that if the government and Ofcom want to maintain public support for the OSA, then they should pick up the pace and ambition of implementation. The user verification measures are an example of a cross-cutting safety measure which could have a significant impact on safety, are well-understood by the public, and would be popular. If Ofcom had chosen the quickest route to implementation, UK users would now be benefiting from these measures - instead they will have to wait a further two years. It is unsurprising that decisions like this are leading a lot of people to feel that the implementation process needs speeding up.

We are therefore encouraging MPs to use the occasion of this debate to challenge the government, and Ofcom, to improve the pace, ambition, and rigour of its implementation of the OSA. Whilst not perfect, the OSA enjoys broad public support and has the potential to make a real difference to the lives of UK internet users. Ofcom’s overly slow and timid approach is failing to make the most of this opportunity.

The research was carried out by Opinium. The total sample size was 2000 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken 28th November - 2nd December 2025. The figures have been weighted to be nationally and politically representative of all UK adults. Full results table available here, and also archived on the Opinium website.