Ofcom Evidence Shows Online Safety Act Progress Leaves Children Still at Risk

The Online Safety Act children protections have produced measurable changes in some areas, yet large numbers of children continue to encounter harmful content. Ofcom’s written evidence to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee makes this clear. The Online Safety Act 2023 requires services to assess risks and put systems in place to reduce illegal harm and protect children. Before the Act, the tech industry faced almost no safety regulation for twenty years. Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, now oversees the regime with around 450 staff focused on online safety.

Age Checks Have Scaled, Yet Minimum Ages Remain Largely Unenforced

Age assurance has expanded sharply. Ofcom reports a 23 fold increase in age checks, with over 69 million completed in the second half of 2025 across 32 child used services. Among the top 100 adult services, 63 now have strong checks and 11 more have blocked UK access. This means roughly 74% of those services are inaccessible to children without circumvention. However, virtually none of the big social media services currently enforce their own minimum age requirements effectively. Ofcom states that 72% of children aged 8–12 access sites and apps despite those policies. Services cannot protect children if they do not know which users are children. The evidence shows platforms have improved some technical barriers while continuing to ignore the rules they set themselves.

Harmful Content Exposure Remains High

Around seven in ten children can still recall encountering harmful content in the previous four weeks, mainly through personal feeds. This includes material related to suicide, self-harm, violence and other priority harms. Ofcom has secured some commitments. Snap adopted measures to prevent grooming. Meta and Roblox introduced stronger protections. X committed to faster review timelines for hate and terror content. Nevertheless, Ofcom has opened an investigation into TikTok for failure to protect children from harmful content. Another investigation targets the Grok AI chatbot over suspected intimate image abuse and child sexual abuse material. Presence of illegal or harmful content alone does not prove a breach. Ofcom must show that a service’s systems are insufficient. The volume of harmful experiences has not fallen far or fast enough.

Industry Response and Enforcement Reality

Companies engaged constructively during the introduction of the regime, yet overall changes remain underwhelming. There is no mature safety culture across the sector. Legal challenges from services including Meta, TikTok and X divert resources. Some overseas services refuse compliance or fines. Ofcom opened 40 investigations in 18 months, more than many international peers, and concluded five compliance remediations. Supervision often secures faster changes than formal enforcement. The regime covers over 100,000 services and more than 130 priority offences. It is not a reactive content-takedown system. It requires proactive systems and processes. Restrictions on proactive technology exist because of privacy and freedom of expression concerns. Services must remove illegal content once they become aware of it rather than scanning everything before upload.

What This Means for Families and Platforms

Parents cannot treat platform age gates as sufficient. Children under the stated minimum age continue to gain access in large numbers. Effective protection requires accurate age information, device-level controls and ongoing conversations. Ofcom’s evidence shows that clear, measurable measures such as highly effective age assurance produce faster results. Vague reliance on company policy does not. For platforms, the gap between stated minimum ages and actual enforcement is now documented by the regulator. Continued failure to apply their own rules will draw further investigations. Families should review current safety settings on the services their children use and treat any reported harmful contact or content as something that requires action, not just reporting.

The evidence also notes disproportionate impacts on certain groups. Eighty-five percent of minority ethnic adults and 90% of LGBTQ+ adults encountered hateful content in the previous year. Women remain less likely than men to say the benefits of the internet outweigh the risks. These patterns reinforce the need for systems that reduce exposure rather than simply reacting after harm occurs.

References

• Ofcom written evidence (IOS0039) to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee
• Ofcom official website
• Online Safety Act 2023 collection – GOV.UK

Related Reading

• Resources for Parents – practical safety settings and family guidance across platforms.
• TikTok Safety Settings for Parents – controls for privacy, contact and content.
• Roblox Safety Settings – account restrictions, content maturity and chat controls.
• Digital Wellbeing for Families – screen limits, device-free times and open dialogue.

About Children of the Digital Age

Children of the Digital Age provides online safety education and training for schools, parents and organisations. Our guides support practical conversations about online behaviour and the choices people make. However, education and app settings do not replace safeguarding or professional support.

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