Children social media harm UK: no change nine months into online safety crackdown
UK children are no less likely to encounter harmful content on social media nine months after the Online Safety Act's children's duties took effect in July 2025, Ofcom's first review of the rules has found. The regulator called the lack of change in children's social media harm concerning.
Children social media harm UK: no change nine months into online safety crackdown
Ofcom's assessment of the first nine months of the Online Safety Act's children's duties found no significant change in the proportion of children encountering harmful content since the duties took effect in July 2025 - a finding the regulator itself described as concerning. Children's social media harm in the UK, it also concluded, shows no evidence of any change in severity since the flagship regulations came into force.
What Ofcom's review found
The children's safety duties introduced in summer 2025 required tech giants to protect children from harmful content including pornography, serious violence, suicide material, racism, misogyny and bullying. Ofcom tracked UK children aged eight to 17 for their exposure to harmful content on user-to-user services, its impact, and their use of safety tools, and analysed wellbeing after exposure. The assessment was shared with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.
Among the examples of harm recorded in the review were children being shown the murder of Charlie Kirk, graphic pornography and weapon-related content that made them feel unsafe at school and in their neighbourhoods.
- Children most commonly reported encountering pornographic content via personalised feeds
- Girls particularly reported feeling confused or upset after seeing pornographic content
- Suicide and eating disorder content was driven mostly through personal feeds
- Ofcom did record some reductions in harmful content on platforms including Minecraft, Call of Duty, YouTube, Pinterest and Facebook
Algorithms at the root
Personalised recommendation feeds powered by "for you" algorithms were repeatedly found by Ofcom to be at the root of children continuing to be fed harmful material. The review found girls were the most likely to encounter both pornographic content and suicide and eating disorder material.
Ofcom also found that young men and boys consuming motivational and self-improvement content can quickly be exposed to more extreme content promoting misogyny and racism. Moderation systems are often bypassed by misspelled hashtags and coded language.
Regulator under pressure
The NSPCC said children were being exposed to harmful content at an alarming rate, a pattern echoed in calls to Childline. Rani Govender, the charity's head of child safety online, said: "progress is not happening nearly fast enough". Govender said tech companies had had months to act, yet too many platforms remain built to keep children hooked, with algorithms continuing to push harmful content, and urged stronger action to rein in harmful features.
Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly died aged 14 in 2017 after viewing suicide material on social media, told the Guardian the lack of progress was "staggering but sadly not surprising". He blamed Ofcom's "timidity and lack of action", and said it was time the regulator investigated the major flaws in TikTok and Instagram's design features rather than focusing on small technicalities.
Ofcom's own chief executive has been candid with MPs about the industry. Dame Melanie Dawes told them: "We do not see a safety culture from these large social media companies."
The regulator also faces legal challenges from Meta, the operator of Instagram, TikTok and X, owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX group, and has warned it risks being "absolutely clobbered legally by deep-pocketed individuals and firms". An Ofcom spokesperson said the industry had been unregulated and unaccountable for more than 20 years, citing age checks, protections against grooming and safeguards against child sexual exploitation, while acknowledging much remained to do and warning non-compliant firms of enforcement action.
What comes next
From next spring, an Australia-style ban is due in the UK that will stop under-16s using social media, covering Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X but not messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal.
A government spokesperson said the government is banning social media services for under-16s and protecting children from harmful functionalities like livestreaming and stranger communications across a wide range of services including gaming, adding "we are not and never will be bystanders".
The spokesperson said platforms have both a moral and legal duty to protect children and are expected to work with the government to set a new normal for future generations.
Mitali Sud, senior policy manager at the online safety group Internet Matters, warned that a social media ban cannot replace the need to make online services safer for children, since gaming and messaging platforms are not covered and 16- and 17-year-olds will still use social media.
Ofcom noted that its data did not cover the period from this spring when it stepped up pressure on Facebook, YouTube, Snap, Roblox and TikTok over child safety. In July it launched an investigation into TikTok over child safety concerns, including how it checks whether users are adults or children. TikTok, Meta, X and Google were contacted for comment.
