If you have kids who use Snapchat, Instagram, or Roblox, some meaningful changes are coming their way. UK regulator Ofcom has secured new commitments from all three platforms to better protect children from online strangers and potential groomers.
Snap is making the biggest moves by agreeing to adopt all of Ofcom’s recommended grooming-prevention measures. Adult strangers will no longer be able to contact children by default, and kids won’t be nudged to expand their friend lists to people they don’t know. The platform will also roll out age verification to all UK users this summer to ensure under-18s receive these protections.
Roblox is going further, too, giving parents the ability to turn off direct chat for under-16s entirely. Meta is developing a new setting to hide teens’ connection lists on Instagram and plans to use AI tools to detect suspicious conversations between adults and minors.
But what about TikTok and YouTube?
Not everyone got a gold star. TikTok and YouTube failed to commit to any significant changes to make their content feeds safer for children. Ofcom’s research found that nearly three quarters of 11 to 17-year-olds encountered harmful content in a four-week period, with over a third coming across it while scrolling their feeds. TikTok and YouTube ranked among the top platforms where this happened. Both companies insist their feeds are already safe. Ofcom clearly disagrees.
Why are 8-year-olds still on TikTok and Instagram?
Research shows that 84% of children aged 8 to 12 are still using at least one platform. It’s because it’s really easy to fool the age-verification policies these platforms have in place as of now.
Ofcom has written to the Secretary of State advising that stronger legislation may be needed to give regulators the teeth to actually enforce age limits. For now, Ofcom has laid out a five-point action plan to monitor these commitments and push for further change, with enforcement action on the table for platforms that don’t comply.
Children’s safety should be a no-brainer issue that no company in existence should have a problem with. It’s good that some companies are following Ofcom’s guidelines and enacting stringent protective measures.
However, there should not be a need for a regulatory body to enforce safety practices. Social media companies need to take responsibility and be more proactive in addressing these issues, something they have clearly failed at in the past.