Investigation into Secure Live Media Ltd

Ofcom has now closed its investigation into Secure Live Media Ltd with regards to the Camsoda platform.

During our investigation, we obtained evidence to support the company’s assertion that the CamSoda website was not, in fact, operated by the UK based company Secure Live Media Ltd, but by Secure Live Media LLC, a company based in the USA. As such, we do not have reasonable grounds to suspect that the website falls within the remit of the VSP regime and are closing the investigation into Secure Live Media Ltd. Secure Live Media Ltd has recently been dissolved at Companies House following a voluntary strike off initiated by the company.

We welcome Secure Live Media LLC’s willingness to engage with Ofcom as part of this investigation and we will be monitoring their compliance with relevant obligations under the new online safety regime.

Ofcom has today opened an own-initiative investigation into Secure Live Media Ltd (SLM), in respect of the video-sharing platform (VSP) service CamSoda and SLM’s compliance with its statutory obligations as the provider of a VSP service under Part 4B of the Act.

Part 4B of the Act came into force on 1 November 2020 and sets out the statutory framework for the regulation of VSPs. In particular:

• since 6 April 2021, persons providing a VSP service have been obliged to notify Ofcom of their intention to provide (or continue to provide) the VSP service; and
• a person who provides a VSP service must, in relation to that service, take such of the measures set out in Schedule 15A of the Act as are appropriate for (among other things) the purpose of protecting persons under the age of 18 from videos containing restricted material.

In January 2023, Ofcom opened an enforcement programme into age assurance measures on UK-established adult VSPs. Through this programme we have carried out an initial assessment into CamSoda, and have reason to believe that:

• SLM is the provider of CamSoda, which is a VSP service within the scope of Part 4B of the Act and has not been notified to Ofcom;
• CamSoda hosts material that would fall within the definition of 'restricted material'; and
• SLM may not have taken and implemented such of the measures set out in Schedule 15A of the Communications Act 2003 in relation to the service as are appropriate for the purposes of protecting persons under the age of 18 from videos containing restricted material.

This investigation will examine these questions further to determine whether SLM has contravened or is contravening sections 368V and/or 368Z1 of the Act. We will gather further information and intend to publish an update on our investigation by the end of October 2023.