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As of July 24, 2025, SpaceHey is unavailable to users in the United Kingdom.
This is due to the UK's new Online Safety Act, which came into effect on July 24, 2025. The law introduces strict new requirements for social media platforms - especially around protecting minors. For example, platforms must prevent users who are under 18 from accessing features like instant messaging or potentially harmful content.
At SpaceHey, we absolutely support making the internet safer - especially for young people. Our community has always been rooted in positivity, creativity, and self-expression, and we've worked hard with our small team of volunteer moderators to remove harmful content as quickly as possible.
However, as a small and independent platform run with very limited resources, we currently don't have the tools or infrastructure to reliably verify the age of every UK user in a privacy-friendly and scalable way, or to guarantee full compliance with the new regulations.
To avoid any legal risks, we've decided to temporarily restrict access for UK users until we can fully understand the requirements and explore possible solutions.
I know this is frustrating, and I wish things were different. I'm proud of the community SpaceHey has grown into, and I understand how disappointing this is for those in the UK. However, this isn't goodbye. It's a pause, while we explore our options and hopefully return, better and compliant with these special new UK requirements, as soon as possible.
In the meantime, thank you so much for being part of this amazing community. We appreciate your patience, your understanding, and your support.
If you'd like to stay informed about updates or our progress on this issue, please check back soon or follow SpaceHey on one of the other social networks like Bluesky, Mastodon, Facebook, or Instagram.
Thank you so much for your understanding,
An
This decision has been made as a precaution and does not constitute legal advice or a final determination of SpaceHeyβs compliance status under UK law.
Comments
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Sutherland
:((
Jacob Persico
These stupid garbage laws governments make to take away are freedom and privacy is total BS this needs to stop!
phoebs ^^
PEOPLE IN THE UK!!!
use tor browser :)
(or a vpn)
ok,bro
by Gus; ; Report
yea, VPNs help a lot and can be the gateway to more internet freedom
by 3LOY; ; Report
bro,UK BLOCKED RULE34!
by Gus; ; Report
βοΈπ΄πππβοΈ
So you do support that WE give YOU OUR PERSONAL DATA to just CHAT PRIVATELY that won't be PRIVATE for the safety of kids? Like kids should not be on here and that is the PARENTS JOB to MONITOR what THEIR kids are doing on the internet. So why do you just accept that? Fight for freedom, fight for privacy! Why do you obey something you and the people don't want? I don't get it just don't obey. That is how you start a Revolution. If you stand up maybe we all will because this is madness trying to control EVERYTHING! That's not safty that is a mental illness. We out number them 1 to 1 million but the people are too afraid to do what to stand up and fight? They think by accepting this will change something?
I agree. This "safety act" isn't protecting kids, and people should be against it.
by πππππ παπρπΎπ; ; Report
Its one thing for the big USA platforms to fight against it, USA legislation is very strict on free speech, but for a smaller platform, in europe, the threat of litigation from the UK government is a very scary prospect i would imagine, could get a site like this wiped out entirely in no time unfortunately,
But yeah if Wikipedia, and primarily US based companies fight against it we could see it get repealed, that or every country will fall in line with all the major tech companies knowing how much they can profit off all the extra data
by Theleeroy; ; Report
I totally agree. This law is trash. The governments keep pushing to take away are freedom and privacy. UK residents need to push back against this trash law! And ALL citizens all over the world need to push back against these laws that our governments keep pushing to destroy our freedom and privacy!!
by Jacob Persico; ; Report
YES ABSOLUTELY It's the parents job! If the parents and guardians don't want their children on a certain site it SHOULD NOT be the webmaster's responsibility. There are website parental control programs on the market for that. I think SpaceHey SHOULD block UK until this gets resolved. UK with there F-ed up law is giving SpaceHey no choice. It's up to the UK residents to fight this. Just like it's up to the citizens of each country to fight their country's internet censorship laws. Or we won't have a free and open internet anymore. Actually to late, it's no longer a free and open internet because of these stupid garbage laws censoring the Internet. Like that law in Florida. We have to continue to fight because the governments of the world are working hard to strip us of are freedom and our privacy.
by Jacob Persico; ; Report
Zigzag Buster πΊπ¦
I guess this means I canβt chat with people from the U.K. anymore.
Just the few of us that break the rules :')
by Theleeroy; ; Report
Then more of you need to break the rules.
by Zigzag Buster πΊπ¦; ; Report
I reckon a lot of people will, and actually hope more big sites ban the UK because of the safety act, just so more people do stand against it, driving people and especially teens to VPNs or worse ain't it
by Theleeroy; ; Report
Raccoon
Thx An. It should be the parents' responsibility to moderate their children but sadly some either don't know or ignores what their kids do on the Internet and it can be scarring (coming from experience).
Seeing horrible gore made me be a lot safer/more careful around lathes and other machinery lol
Also made me think twice before jumping off of cliffs for fun like the other macho guys because hey, I saw that Puerto Rican kid that thought he could clear the concrete bridge pillar with his jump and land in the water and he in fact could NOT. Much to his skull's dismay.
Also made me thankful to be in America where we don't tie gays up and throw them to their death off of buildings with the whole town watching like in the middle east. Or send people to slave labor camps for decades under the threat of killing their families if they don't perform like in North Korea.
A dose/taste of reality even when it feels bad doesn't mean that it was bad for you.
Just like going to the gym can hurt at first but it's good for you in the long run.
by MAD SCIENCE; ; Report
bro what this is the most horrid take ive ever seen. idk when you watched this but we're talking about CHILDREN watching this? and if you watched this as a child and had this reaction you may actually be some kind of path idrk the difference between all of them. and even if you're not and you just dont gaf, other children definitely do it can mess you up. i got this in a different font i saw things i DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT HAVE because people on youtube can't go to the appropriate websites n yeah that screwed me up
by goodbunny; ; Report
Did you read it all? The only path i'm on is being careful around lathes, not being gay in Muslim countries, and never going to Africa. I've never hurt anyone in all my years and still don't want to. I didn't like seeing that stuff either, it just used to be EVERYWHERE on the internet. You would scroll on facebook or a meme site, boom, some muslims beheading some dude, or some African's chopping someone up. That didn't really stop until the mid/late 2010's. It made me a better person even though I didn't like it because I got a view into how the world REALLY is. Which is needed information for any society that has the wrong idea that all people are equal interchangable units and you can easily integrate ANY culture with ANY other culture with no problems...
by MAD SCIENCE; ; Report
seeing gore as a young child will definitely make you cautious but it might make you TOO cautious. again like i said i didnt experience exactly that but i can imagine it'd make you really anxious when you're at the exact age that you can understand what's going on and still impressionable enough for it to make you really paranoid. and idk but it seems like you're talking about maybe a teen or young adult. im at least talking about like anywhere from 8-14.
by goodbunny; ; Report
Anything in life can make you too cautious. A car accident, getting stuck in an elevator, hearing about someone stuck in an elevator, etc.
Better safe than sorry, also there are plenty of other videos on the internet of people doing risky stuff that goes well like red bull stunts it helps balance it out.
by MAD SCIENCE; ; Report
β±β°πππππ-ππ β°β±
thank you An! keep working hard, it's probably just as frustrating for you as it is for our friends in the UK
we will all get through this together (over VPN), the indie web isn't going anywhere u.u <3
βｑοΎβοΈβｑ LG οΎβΎ βο½‘οΎ ΛαΛ
An being an absolute gigachad and not even thinking about including a Twitter link. move to bsky, people!!!
Λββ§κ°α ππππππππππ ΰ»κ± β§βΛ
I hate that the governments want to censor the internet, internet is a free place for everyone, not a place for countries having all of your information and for companies selling your data >:(
Jacob Persico
People have to make these really stupid rules that censor the internet. It's total bull crap!!! You can't even have a platform where kids can send messages to each other. This is so stupid!! I hate this internet censorship BS!!!!!
NOSTROM
World governments trying to not be evil for 5 seconds
Lexi
The parents of Gen Z fucked up to be fair I am not Gen Z and my parents also fucked up then again the internet was only on the computer and the iPhone wasn't around until I got into 8th grade
ππππ
Its ok am using vpn :)
real :D
by π°π¦πͺπ―ππ₯; ; Report
real B)
by Parascoper; ; Report
same lol
by rot; ; Report
IShowEnergy
you could ad a 18+ face scanner so the underage can stay off
The issue is the scanners suck, it cant tell the difference between adults and minors since an 18 ans 17 year old dont have much of a difference in facial features plus many adults look like teens and the other way around; the face scans are getting held with a third party look up the major leaks happening with another app that was for only women to share experiences with dangerous men theyve been with. Their faces with their addresses got leaked.
by Cyraelle; ; Report
sireoja
For the people affected by this stupid law that don't want to pay for a VPN: Tor is also a great alternative. The only downside is that it's slow as hell. Best wishes from Romania <3
PS: while in there you can do a lot more cool stuff with Tor =D
Toby
#liveloveVPNs
Midnight
its ok, im using a VPN :)
Same
by π―ππππππππ; ; Report
Parascoper
does not bite my arse a bit!
Wicked crøw
the uk new law is scary for everyone honestly because of the huge privacy breach! and other governments want to implement the same policy's too! the lack of privacy on the internet should concern people more honestly!
Andrew
This censorship is TERRIFYING! As an American citizen, I'm terrified over KOSA, which is the American version of this. They just want to know who we are so they can control us.