London Museum makes changes to the way its website appears on social media after Online Safety Bill makes flagged content harder to see
The Vagina Museum has been forced to make changes to the way its online content appears, following the introduction of new laws in the UK.
The Online Safety Act is a set of recently introduced laws designed to protect children and adults from potentially harmful online content.
To meet the new requirements in the UK, online platforms such as BlueSky now require UK users to prove their age before seeing content flagged as adult. The process is often completed by uploading an official document via a third-party service.
Last week, the Vagina Museum shared a post on BlueSky about its access mornings, with a link to its website. The link’s thumbnail was subsequently flagged for adult content.
The museum explained: “…the so-called “adult content” here is a cartoon of a woman looking in the mirror at her vulva, and the mirror says “you look lovely”. it’s the link preview. it’s not porn.”
The London museum has long struggled with automated content moderation on social media. But now its users must share their identification with Bluesky in order to see all of the museum’s content.
In later posts on the platform, the museum wrote: “If you’ve followed us for a while, you’ll know we come up against automated content moderation pretty frequently. Things like paintings which depict a model with pubic hair being flagged as sexually explicit. Or links to our online shop flagged as sexual solicitation.”
“Or even when posts containing the word “vagina” are flagged as adult content, as if half the world doesn’t have one, and most of us didn’t come out of one.”
The museum’s website thumbnail has since been updated. Where it once featured cartoons, illustrations and historic art in its thumbnails, its website thumbnails contain text which reads:
“This is the Vagina Museum’s placeholder share image.
Social media apps erroneously flag our links as “adult content”. This leads to our content being censored.
Education is not for adults only.”
Let’s try that again, since our last attempt at making this post got flagged…
Immunocompromised? Covid conscious? Friday mornings are masked mornings here at the Vagina Museum. Admission, as always, is free www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/accessmornings
— Vagina Museum (@vaginamuseum.bsky.social) 25 July 2025 at 11:06
Continuing their response on Bluesky, the museum wrote:
“Basic educational information is becoming more and more challenging to post online. But do you know what a social media algorithm can’t censor? A little building in London which is dedicated to vaginas, vulvas and the gynaecological anatomy.
“At the Vagina Museum, you can see what real bodies look like, learn about anatomy, and celebrate the world’s most misunderstood body parts.
“If you’re in the UK and decided not to submit your ID documents to a social media website, our doors are open to you, and admission is free for everyone!”
