The review covers children aged eight to 17 during the first nine months of safety duties introduced in July 2025. Ofcom says it stepped up enforcement pressure after that period.
The UK’s online regulator, Ofcom, found no significant overall change in the proportion of children encountering harmful content during the first nine months of new child-safety duties, according to the Guardian. It also found no evidence that the severity of harm had changed.
The duties took effect in July 2025 under the Online Safety Act. They required platforms to protect children from material including pornography, serious violence, suicide content, racism, misogyny and bullying.
Ofcom tracked UK children aged eight to 17 on services where users share content with one another. The research examined what children encountered, its impact, their use of safety tools and their wellbeing after exposure.
Personalised recommendation feeds—streams of posts selected for individual users—repeatedly emerged in Ofcom’s findings. Children most commonly reported encountering pornography through these feeds. Girls, in particular, reported feeling confused or upset after seeing it.
Suicide and eating-disorder content also reached children mostly through personalised feeds, with girls most likely to encounter both. Ofcom found that boys and young men viewing motivational and self-improvement content could quickly encounter more extreme material promoting misogyny and racism.
The child protection charity NSPCC said progress was not happening fast enough. It urged technology companies to curb features that drive harm, saying recommendation systems continued to push harmful content towards young users.
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The regulator said significant progress included widespread age checks, stronger protections against grooming and tougher safeguards against child sexual exploitation and abuse. It acknowledged that the industry still had much to do and said companies that breached their duties could expect enforcement action. In July 2026, Ofcom opened an investigation into TikTok’s child-safety measures, including how it distinguishes adult users from children.
The UK government plans to ban social media services from accepting under-16s from spring 2027. The planned ban would not cover messaging services. The government also says it plans protections against harmful features, including livestreaming and communication with strangers, across a wider range of services, including games.
Internet Matters warned that the proposed ban could not replace enforcement of the Online Safety Act: children would still face risks on gaming and messaging platforms, while 16- and 17-year-olds would continue to use social media.
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