Which UK cases in 2024 resulted in convictions under the Online Safety Act or Online Safety Bill?
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Executive summary
The only specifically documented 2024 conviction under the new communications offences created by the Online Safety Act was the cyberflashing case that led to the imprisonment of Nicholas Hawkes, a sentence widely reported as 66 weeks at Southend Crown Court after he sent unsolicited explicit images, including to a 15‑year‑old [1] [2]. Part 10 of the Act — the communications offences — came into force on 31 January 2024, and government and prosecutorial guidance confirm that these new offences have produced convictions, but public records and official answers from 2024 provide no other named, concluded convictions in that year [3] [2] [4].
1. The legal baseline: when the new offences became prosecutable
Part 10 of the Online Safety Act, which creates new communications offences including cyberflashing, threatening communications and offences around false communications and encouraging serious self‑harm, commenced on 31 January 2024, bringing a revised suite of criminal options for police and prosecutors [3]. The Crown Prosecution Service updated guidance to reflect the new statutory framework and to indicate how legacy offences were repealed or superseded by the Act as of that commencement date [3]. Government commentary and Ofcom’s phased implementation plans underscore that one strand of the Act — individual criminal liability for certain communications — was intended to be operational immediately while platform duties were rolled out in stages [4] [5].
2. The named 2024 conviction: Nicholas Hawkes and the first cyberflashing sentence
Legal reporting and practitioner briefings identify a single, concrete criminal conviction in early 2024 under the new cyberflashing offence: Nicholas Hawkes was convicted and received a custodial sentence reported at 66 weeks after sending unsolicited explicit photographs to an adult woman and a 15‑year‑old via WhatsApp, a case described as the first use of the Act’s cyberflashing offence in court [1] [2]. Government material and legal commentators repeatedly point to that early conviction as demonstrative that the new communications offences are being used in practice, and some official summaries explicitly note that convictions “have already been made” under cyberflashing and threatening communications categories [4] [2].
3. What the public record does not show for 2024
Despite reporting that police referrals and CPS activity increased after the Act took effect, parliamentary answers from May 2024 stated an inability to provide details of other concluded cases and said definitive prosecution statistics were not yet available, indicating limits to what could be publicly confirmed for 2024 beyond the headline cyberflashing conviction [2]. Wider media and NGO compilations later documented many charges and referrals across 2023–25 — including reporting of hundreds charged for spreading false information or threatening communications by early 2025 — but those aggregates do not supply named, final convictions in calendar 2024 beyond the Hawkes case in the sources provided [6].
4. Context, contention and caveats around enforcement
Observers and rights groups warned early that the Act is legally complex and may raise free‑speech and enforcement challenges, with commentators noting factors such as evidential difficulties for some new offences and concern about potential impacts on expression as the regulator and prosecutors adapt to new provisions [7]. Ofcom’s regulatory timetable and the heavy sanctions available to platforms are separate from criminal prosecutions of individuals, and while Ofcom’s enforcement ramp‑up was set to follow through 2024–25, that regime’s major platform sanctions are distinct from the individual criminal convictions discussed here [8] [5]. The available sources therefore counsel caution in extrapolating from early charges or referrals to confirmed convictions in 2024.
5. Bottom line: what 2024 produced, and where reporting is thin
Based on the documentary record in the sources provided, the only clearly identified conviction in 2024 under the Online Safety Act communications offences was the cyberflashing case resulting in the imprisonment of Nicholas Hawkes [1] [2], with official statements acknowledging convictions had occurred but declining to list additional named outcomes for 2024 and later reporting aggregating charges without necessarily confirming final convictions that year [4] [2] [6]. If other 2024 convictions exist, they are not named or detailed in the cited material; publicly released prosecution datasets and parliamentary answers from mid‑2024 did not offer a fuller catalogue of concluded cases [2].