Ofcom’s report highlighted changes made by Snap, Roblox and Meta which focused on reducing grooming risks.
Ofcom said Snap, which owns Snapchat, had agreed to block adult strangers from contacting children by default in the UK, stop encouraging children to add people they do not know, and introduce “highly effective” age checks this summer.
A Snapchat spokesperson said it would roll out these measures while “preserving privacy protections and the ability for our community to stay connected with their real friends and family”.
The report said Roblox would let parents switch off direct chat entirely for under-16s, while Meta would hide teens’ Instagram connection lists by default and develop AI tools to detect likely sexualised conversations in DMs.
Andy Burrows, chief executive of Molly Rose Foundation, a UK-based online safety charity, welcomed the report, calling big tech platforms “complacent and evasive when it comes to protecting children from preventable harm”.
He added: “Ofcom will be judged by how quickly it can reduce exposure to online harm. A stronger regulator must be accompanied by a conditional ban on personalised algorithms that continue to push out a tsunami of harmful content to teens.”
Ofcom said the promises must now be implemented quickly and properly, warning it will act if platforms failed to deliver.
