Ofcom has published a new report detailing how some of the biggest social networks have responded to its calls for tougher safeguards to protect children from harm online. The UK regulator said it emailed Facebook, Instagram, Roblox, Snap, TikTok and YouTube in March after a study conducted late last year found they were not doing enough to protect children.
One of the regulator’s demands, made under the Online Safety Act, is for platforms to implement protections against online grooming. In response, Snap agreed to roll out default settings that would prevent adults from contacting children they don’t know on its app, and it would no longer encourage young users to “expand their friendship groups to strangers.” The company told Ofcom it will roll out a “highly effective age assurance” system to all UK users this summer, allowing it to identify everyone under the age of 18 in the country and apply new anti-grooming measures to their accounts.
Meanwhile, Meta told the regulator that it will develop a new setting that will hide followers and follower lists of teens on Instagram by default. Additionally, Meta promised to introduce new AI tools that will detect erotic conversations between adults and teens in Instagram DMs. After this the company will report the objectionable accounts to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Meta will also expand the availability of its “13+ movie style” sensitive content controls from Instagram to Facebook, which will limit the extent to which teens can view age-appropriate posts.
Roblox, which is believed to have a problem with child predators, has committed to implementing age assurance measures so that it only suggests games appropriate for users’ age. It will also give parents of users under 16 the ability to turn off chats completely. Roblox introduced an age verification system last year to limit users’ ability to interact with people outside their age group. However, there were problems with its implementation, and children were fooling the system by simply drawing mustaches and wrinkles on their faces.
“TikTok and YouTube have not committed to any significant changes in response to our demands,” Ofcom said. The platforms argued that their feeds were already safe for children. YouTube told BBC It worked with child safety experts to ensure an “industry-leading, age-appropriate” experience for children.
“Our research published today shows that nine out of ten children aged 8-12 are using online services with a minimum age requirement of 13+, so companies’ responses to our call for these to be implemented
The requirements are related more effectively,” the regulator wrote. Ofcom said it would share its findings and its concerns with the UK government, particularly in response to its call for feedback about imposing social media restrictions for children under 16. The UK announced in January that it was looking at introducing minimum age restrictions similar to Australia, which came into effect in December 2025.
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