Ofcom increases scrutiny on YouTube and TikTok over child safety

The communications regulator, Ofcom, have published a report detailing how social media platforms have responded to their demands in March to strengthen protections for children online. While some apps are bringing in new safety measures, Ofcom have raised concerns about responses from these tech companies.

In March, Ofcom published four key demands for action from tech and social media platforms. They told companies to implement effective minimum-age policies, failsafe grooming protections, and safer feeds for children, and to end product testing on children. Ofcom’s latest report details how apps such as Roblox, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat have responded to their demands.

Snap, Meta (who own Facebook and Instagram), and gaming platform Roblox have all committed to bringing in new safety features to protect children from online grooming. Snapchat will prevent strangers from contacting children by default, and children will not be encouraged to expand their friendship circle to include people they do not know. Roblox has added to safety measures already announced by allowing parents to directly switch off chat services entirely to those under 16. Meta has said that they will hide teen’s connections list by default and implement AI technology to detect sexualised messages between adults and teens.

Despite these commitments, Ofcom is calling for further action from social media companies. They note that: “Content feeds are children’s primary pathway to harm and we are deeply concerned by the overall response from industry to our challenge to fix the problem.”

Neither TikTok or YouTube have committed to making significant changes to reduce harmful content seen by children. Both platforms claim that their feeds are already safe, but Ofcom challenge that claim with evidence from their reports.

Ofcom’s research shows that there has been little change to children’s exposure to harm online since July 2025, with 73% of 11- to 17-year-olds encountering it in a four-week period. 35% of these children said they were exposed to harmful content while they were ‘scrolling on their feed’, and over half of secondary school aged children came across harmful content on TikTok (53%), followed by YouTube (36%), Instagram (34%), and Facebook (31%).

Ofcom are exploring new inspection powers under the Online Safety Act to verify what the platforms are reporting to the regulator by requiring them to undergo an independent audit. They are also calling for clearer legislation to allow Ofcom to enforce minimum age policies.

They state that none of the companies with a minimum age of 13 had convinced the watchdog that they are enforcing the age limit effectively. Their latest research reveals that 84% of children aged 8–12 are still using one of the top five online services (YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat) despite each of them having a minimum age of 13.

Ofcom’s Chief Executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, said: “These changes have the potential to make children’s lives safer online … 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.”

Chris Sherwood, CEO of the NSPCC, commented that “it is deeply concerning that tech companies are still failing to recognise and address the harmful nature of their algorithms … We must see these services go further and be held accountable for transformational change which puts children's safety and wellbeing at the centre of platform design.”