TikTok and YouTube "not safe enough" for children regulator says

TikTok and YouTube are "not safe enough" for children according to a new report by Ofcom.

Ofcom, which oversees standards for TV, radio and the internet in the UK - said that nearly three-quarters (73%) of 11–17-year-olds they spoke to for their report, said they had seen harmful content online during the four weeks of the study.

They said a key reason for this was personalised feeds, with 35% of children saying they saw harmful content whilst scrolling through their own feed.

"TikTok and YouTube failed to commit to any significant changes to reduce harmful content being served to children, maintaining their feeds are already safe for children," said a spokesperson from Ofcom.

"Our wealth of evidence, published today, suggests they are still not safe enough." they said.

In response to the report, YouTube said it had worked with child safety experts to provide "industry-leading, age-appropriate" experiences for children.

They said they had introduced a short-form video timer, where parents can set time limits for the scrolling Shorts feed.

TikTok said it was "very disappointing" Ofcom had failed to acknowledge its safety features, such as stopping direct messaging for under-16s.

Last year Ofcom introduced new rules as part of the Online Safety Act, which means that online and social media companies are, by law, responsible for keeping children and young people safe online.

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said that if platforms did not follow its rules, Ofcom was "ready to take the toughest enforcement action".

"We will absolutely move into a formal investigation if we need to," she added.

Before the report was published, Dame Dawes said that Ofcom was also "deeply concerned" that companies were still failing to take action to keep underage children off their platforms.

A survey by Ofcom found that 84% of children aged eight - 12 were still using at least one major online service with a minimum age of 13.

Ofcom's report also detailed how three other major platforms had responded to its demand for stronger protections for children.

It showed that Meta, Snap and Roblox had agreed to changes to help protect children from talking to strangers or seeing unsafe content online.

Ofcom said that Snap, Snapchat owner, had agreed to block adult strangers from contacting children as standard in the UK; to stop encouraging children to add people they do not know, and introduce "highly effective" age checks this summer.

A Snapchat spokesperson said it would bring in these measures whilst still allowing "our community to stay connected with their real friends and family".

The Ofcom report also said that Roblox had introduced a measure that would let parents switch off direct chat entirely for under-16s. Roblox also said it had released new safety features and protections for under-13s in the last year.

Meta said it would hide teenagers' Instagram connection lists by default, to protect them and other children from adult strangers online, and would be developing AI tools to scan conversations in Direct Messages that might contain age-inappropriate language.

Ofcom said the promises must happen quickly and properly, warning it will act if platforms failed to deliver.