Tiktok and YouTube falling short on child safety, Ofcom says | #childsafety | #kids | #chldern | #parents | #schoolsafey

Tech firms are agreeing to new anti-grooming measures to better protect UK children online, though Ofcom notes that some tech firms are still lacking in their protections.

Snap, Meta and Roblox have confirmed to the regulator that they will bring in new safety measures designed to better protect children from online strangers who wish them harm – ranging from tighter default settings for children’s contacts and friendship groups, to AI detection tools and direct chat controls.

These new commitments are included in a report, published today, which confirms how major platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Roblox, Snap, TikTok and YouTube – have responded to Ofcom’s demands in March to urgently strengthen protections for children online.

However, the regulator is still concerned about the lack of action from some platforms to make their feeds safer. Similarly, Ofcom is not convinced that the commitments from platforms with a strict minimum age of 13 will effectively prevent underage children from accessing their services.

Notably, TikTok and YouTube failed to commit to any significant changes to reduce harmful content being served to children, maintaining their feeds are already safe for children.

Ofcom’s evidence, however, suggests that these platforms are still not safe enough.

Since the children’s online safety duties came into force in July 2025, there has been little change in children’s overall exposure to harmful content, with nearly three-quarters of 11- to 17-year-olds (73%) encountering it in a four-week period.

Just over a third (35%) of these children recalled exposure to harmful content when they were ‘scrolling on their feed’.

Half of secondary school aged children who see harmful content recall coming across it on TikTok (53%), followed by YouTube (excluding YouTube kids) (36%), Instagram (34%), and Facebook (31%).

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Despite acknowledging the importance of minimum age policies, none of the companies with a minimum age of 13 on their services convinced us that they are currently enforcing them effectively and the impact is clear. Our latest research shows that 84% of children aged 8–12 are still using one of the top five reaching online services (YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat) despite a minimum age of 13.

Ofcom has laid out a five point action plan to hold tech firms to account:

1. Monitoring the implementation of services’ new commitments to ensure they work in practice to better protect children.
2. Continuing to review evidence on recommender feeds and explore whether to use new inspection powers, with a further update in July.
3. Launching enforcement action where we have grounds to suspect non-compliance with the Online Safety Act.
4. Continuing to monitor the real-world experiences of children online through our world-class research.
5. Engaging with Government on the outcome of its consultation so that enforcement of minimum age policies under online safety laws can be strengthened where needed.

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

“Ofcom’s 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.

“We 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 children’s safety and social media.”

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