When harmful content is recommended to children, it is not by the choice of the child, it is by the design of the platform, a report by the UK media regulator Ofcom points out.
Content feeds are a primary pathway to harm, and platforms must urgently fix this. Ofcom says it is ‘seriously concerned’ by the responses from tech firms (or rather lack of them) to the ‘safer feeds demand’. Overall, the responses to an April 30 deadline set by the regulator failed to set out how the services will make feeds safe for children to use and reduce the harm that children experience, the watchdog said. Meta set out some planned changes, including new 13-plus โmovie-styleโ content settings available on Instagram that will be rolled out on Facebook. The report said: “This is welcome, but it is too early to tell whether it will meaningfully reduce harm in practice. By contrast, YouTube and TikTok made no new commitments.”
While firms recognised the importance of minimum age policies, Ofcoms says it’s ‘not currently convinced’ that the commitments by any of the four services that set a minimum age of 13 in their terms of use โ Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok โ ensure they will effectively prevent children under 13 from accessing their sites and apps.
For the report in full visit the Ofcom website.
Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcomโs Chief Executive said:ย โOfcomโs sustained public and private pressure on the tech platforms where children spend most time has delivered some significant safety improvements – particularly against grooming. However, more change is needed, and we remain deeply concerned that, despite overwhelming evidence of harm, companies are still failing to take the necessary action to keep underage children off their platforms and make their feeds safer.
โWe are determined to force through further changes, using the full extent of our powers and influence. We will also bring our evidence and experience to bear as the government considers responses to its national conversation on childrenโs safety and social media.โ
Comment
Pieter Arntz, Senior Threat Intelligence Researcher at Malwarebytes said that age verification systems can be highly invasive, often requiring users to hand over sensitive personal information such as government IDs or biometric selfie data simply to access online services. He said: “That raises serious questions around privacy, data collection, and how this information is stored and protected.
“Protecting children online should instead focus on building safer digital experiences overall. Stronger moderation removes harmful content rather than simply blocking access, while safer recommendation systems help prevent algorithms from amplifying dangerous or inappropriate material to young users. Better platform accountability is also critical, ensuring companies prioritise user safety instead of engagement at all costs.
“There is also a cybersecurity concern that cannot be ignored: expanding age verification creates large stores of sensitive personal data that could become valuable targets for attackers. And as our own threat research has shown, blunt access restrictions can sometimes push users toward smaller, less secure corners of the internet where malware, scams, and other risks are more prevalent.
“Ultimately, creating genuinely safer online spaces requires robust platform design and meaningful safeguards, not just additional barriers that are easy to bypass and difficult to secure.”
