What is the number of convictions and charges under Online Safety Act ?

1. Known, named convictions under the OSA — the handful of landmark cases

Reporting identifies discrete, high‑profile convictions that tested OSA offences: Nicholas Hawkes was the first person convicted for cyber‑flashing under the new offences after pleading guilty to sending unsolicited explicit images and was later sentenced to 66 weeks in prison (reported as the first cyber‑flashing conviction in February–March 2024) ^{[1] [2] [5]}. Legal and sector blogs also record another early OSA prosecution from Essex in February 2024 that led to imprisonment, and a Colchester perpetrator jailed for 34 weeks for online threats and harassment was described as a “landmark” use of the new offences ^{[6] [1]}. Subsequent reports and encyclopedic entries note the first conviction under section 184 (encouraging or assisting serious self‑harm) occurred in July 2025 and cite a major sentence in a Manchester case involving multiple sexual offences alongside the OSA count ^{[3] [7]}.

2. Charged volumes and conviction rates — no central OSA count; related enforcement shows low conviction conversion

There is no source among the material provided that publishes an official, cumulative figure for the number of people charged or convicted exclusively under the Online Safety Act since its enactment; government guidance, CPS guidance and legal briefings describe the new Part 10 offences and their sentencing ranges but do not supply a running total of charges/convictions ^{[8] [9] [10]}. Parliamentary debate and Hansard provide useful context on related communications enforcement: in 2023, police made 12,183 arrests under Section 127 (Communications Act 2003) and the Malicious Communications Act, and fewer than 10% — “some 1,119” — of those arrested were convicted and sentenced, a statistic cited in Lords debate to criticise arrest criteria ^[4]. That figure is for pre‑OSA offences and overlapping communications legislation rather than a neat measure of OSA outcomes, but it demonstrates the gulf often seen between arrests and convictions in online communications policing ^[4].

3. Why an exact OSA charge/conviction total is missing from reporting

The OSA introduced multiple new communications offences (Part 10) on 31 January 2024, and guidance from government and the CPS focuses on prosecutorial discretion, overlap with pre‑existing offences, and where prosecutors should prefer older or newer charges to reflect seriousness — factors that fragment headline counting ^{[8] [9] [11]}. Legal commentators note overlap between new OSA offences and older statutes, meaning cases that could be charged under the OSA are sometimes pursued under established laws instead, further complicating any simple tally ^{[11] [12]}. Ofcom and regulators are scaling enforcement activity but published enforcement actions (fines, directions) do not equate to criminal charge statistics and reporting to date spotlights illustrative test cases rather than comprehensive datasets ^[13].

4. What the available figures do and do not show — reading between the lines

The sources together show that the OSA has been used in high‑impact, precedent‑setting prosecutions — cyber‑flashing and encouraging self‑harm among them — and that prosecutors are exercising choice between overlapping offences; they do not, however, supply a nationwide numeric summary of all OSA charges or convictions ^{[1] [2] [3] [8] [11]}. Parliamentary figures about thousands of arrests and roughly 1,119 convictions under earlier communications laws underline that public concern and enforcement activity do not automatically translate into high conviction totals, but they cannot be cited as a definitive count of OSA convictions ^[4]. No document in the provided reporting offers a single official total for “number of convictions and charges under Online Safety Act,” so any precise figure would require access to consolidated CPS/HO/Ofcom prosecution statistics or a Freedom of Information request not present in these sources.