Ofcom Slams TikTok and YouTube Over Child Safety Failures

BBC Business reported Wednesday that UK media regulator Ofcom has concluded TikTok and YouTube remain insufficiently safe for children, releasing findings that put both platforms firmly on notice.

Ofcom Child Safety Report Targets Two Major Platforms

The regulator reviewed how five large video and social platforms responded to its earlier demands for stronger child protections. Ofcom Dame Melanie Dawes said the watchdog was “deeply concerned” that companies were still failing to keep underage users off their services. A survey conducted alongside the review found 84% of eight-to-twelve-year-olds still accessed at least one platform requiring users to be 13 or older. Neither TikTok nor YouTube committed to meaningful changes, each insisting their existing feeds were already appropriate for younger audiences.

TikTok pointed to its existing block on direct messaging for under-16s. YouTube highlighted a parental timer feature for its short-form Shorts feed. Ofcom said those measures fell well short of what its evidence demanded.

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A Shifting Debate Around Platform Design

Social media analyst Matt Navarra told the BBC the findings reflected a broader regulatory pivot. The argument is no longer about whether platforms remove harmful content fast enough. It has shifted to why harmful content was recommended to a child in the first place. Online safety researcher Prof Victoria Baines noted that age-verification efforts had produced limited results even in Australia following its social media ban for under-16s, suggesting platforms may ultimately need to analyse user behaviour to infer real age.

Where Snap, Meta and Roblox Fared Better

Ofcom credited three other platforms with agreeing to substantive anti-grooming steps. Snap will block unknown adults from contacting children by default in the UK and introduce stricter age checks this summer. Roblox will allow parents to disable direct chat entirely for under-16s. Meta will hide teenage users’ Instagram connection lists by default and develop AI tools to flag likely sexualised messages in direct conversations.

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Government Ban Consultation Nears Its Close

The UK government’s consultation on a potential ban on social media for under-16s closes on 26 May, with ministers expected to respond over the summer. The Education Committee separately published its own response Thursday, backing a ban while calling for urgent curbs on features designed to drive excessive screen time among young users. Ofcom warned platforms that agreed commitments must be delivered swiftly, and that regulatory action would follow if they were not.

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