Ofcom intervention pushes Snap, Meta and Roblox to commit to child safety measures but evidence shows more is needed
New commitments from large tech companies show that regulatory pressure can drive change but children’s exposure to harmful design practices and content remains stubbornly unchanged.
Some of the largest services used by children in the UK have committed to adopting safety measures required under Ofcom’s regulatory framework, following an intervention from the regulator. Meta, Roblox and Snap have committed to notify Ofcom when they update their risk assessments, with the latter also committing to introduce effective age assurance to enforce protections for under 18s.
These new commitments are definitive proof that sustained regulatory pressure can drive companies to protect children in the digital environment.
However, there is still a huge gap between what companies say is happening on their platforms and what children are actually experiencing online.Nine in ten children aged 8–12 are using services that are supposedly restricted to over-13s. Seven in ten children aged 11-17 continue to encounter harmful content, the same level recorded before duties under the Online Safety Act came into force in July 2025. Children also reported seeing harmful content most frequently via TikTok and YouTube. Yet both platforms have made no significant commitments in response to Ofcom’s demands, maintaining that their feeds are already safe for children. This increasingly at odds with legal action in the US alleging that major platforms have knowingly designed products to prioritise engagement over children’s safety and wellbeing.
New research from 5Rights and the London School of Economics through the Digital Futures for Children centre, conducted across 70 platforms, points to a wider pattern. Incumbent tech giants have pulled back from built-in safety protections in favour of optional tools such as parental controls, shifting back responsibility onto children and families. Critically, the report identifies weak enforcement as a key driver of this pattern.
Children cannot be protected by promises and “best endeavours”. The evidence increasingly suggests that companies will continue to do just enough unless there are clearer rules, stronger enforcement and meaningful consequences when children are exposed to preventable harm.
We are calling on the UK government to require tech companies to make digital spaces safe for children and young people by design and default. Add your name to our petition.
