The British regulator has confirmed that certain social media platforms are undeniably harmful to children

The British communications regulator Ofcom has criticized the popular platforms TikTok and YouTube for failing to take the necessary measures to protect underage users, despite clear evidence of harm. 

This is stated in the regulator’s official statement. 

The agency emphasized that both companies refused to make any significant commitments to change their algorithms, continuing to claim that their services are already completely safe for minors. The published data indicates that the current news feeds on these platforms still do not provide an adequate level of safety. According to Ofcom’s research, personalized recommendation feeds are the primary channel through which children most often encounter harmful content online.

At the same time, representatives of the British regulator stated that they are currently not convinced of the effectiveness of the existing obligations of popular platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, where the minimum age is set at 13 years old according to the official terms of use. According to the agency, the implemented tools do not effectively prevent children under the age of 13 from accessing these websites and apps. Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dowse separately emphasized the need for immediate implementation of further systemic changes. She stressed that the agency’s leadership remains deeply concerned about the situation where companies ignore clear evidence of harm and fail to take the necessary steps to keep children who are too young off their platforms and make their feeds safer.