A UK regulator has announced that TikTok and YouTube's recommendation features are not safe for children.
Video sharing services, social media, and online games have become familiar playgrounds and communication channels for children, but they have also become a way for malicious adults to approach them. To address this problem, the UK's communications regulator Ofcom has called on major platforms to strengthen their safety measures under the Online Safety Act, but TikTok and YouTube have reportedly not shown sufficient changes to make their child-friendly feeds safer.
Tech firms commit to stronger anti-grooming measures in response to Ofcom demands
Keep underage children off your platforms, Ofcom tells tech firms
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/keep-underage-children-off-your-platforms-ofcom-tells-tech-firms
Younger phone owners, the rise of AI, and consumption over creation – our latest look at UK children's media lives
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/younger-phone-owners-the-rise-of-ai-and-consumption-over-creation-our-latest-look-at-uk-childrens-media-lives
TikTok, YouTube lag on UK child safety as rivals act, regulator says | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/tiktok-youtube-lag-uk-child-safety-rivals-act-regulator-says-2026-05-20/
Ofcom plays a role in ensuring that online service providers implement mechanisms to protect users from harm, based on the Online Safety Act. On March 12, 2026, Ofcom sent letters to Facebook, Instagram, Roblox, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, calling for the effective implementation of minimum age requirements, measures against grooming, safer recommended feeds, and a halt to the rollout of new features to children without sufficient safety checks. Grooming refers to adults approaching children online and using the pretense of trust to lead to sexual exploitation, while measures against grooming refer to measures to protect children from the risk of contact by unknown adults.
According to Ofcom, Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, Snap, which operates Snapchat, and Roblox have indicated their intention to implement additional grooming measures for children in the UK. Snap will prevent unknown adults from contacting children by default and will also remove prompts that encourage children to expand their connections with strangers. Snap plans to roll out 'high-precision age verification' to all UK users in the summer of 2026 to more reliably identify users under 18.
Meta is developing a feature on Instagram that will hide teenage users' connection lists by default, and also plans to introduce an AI tool to detect sexually explicit conversations between adults and teenage users in Instagram Direct Messages. Accounts suspected of violating the rules will be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and necessary action will be taken. Roblox plans to add a feature that will allow parents to completely turn off direct chat for users under 16.
On the other hand, Ofcom's particular concern with TikTok and YouTube was not the grooming measures themselves, but rather their efforts to address the recommended feeds that could potentially display harmful content to children. According to Ofcom, TikTok and YouTube did not promise any 'significant changes to make their feeds safer for children,' instead claiming that their feeds were already safe for children.
Based on research results released the same day, Ofcom stated that TikTok and YouTube feeds are 'still not safe enough.' Ofcom's survey found that 73% of children aged 11 to 17 reported seeing harmful content in the past four weeks, and 35% recalled seeing it while scrolling through their recommended feeds. Of the middle and high school students who saw harmful content, 53% said they saw it on TikTok, and 36% said they saw it on YouTube. Instagram accounted for 34%, and Facebook for 31%.
There are also challenges to the effectiveness of age restrictions. Ofcom pointed out that 84% of children aged 8 to 12 use at least one of the major services that have a minimum age of 13. As of the time of writing, the UK's Online Safety Act does not explicitly require strong age verification to enforce the minimum age, so Ofcom says that if the government and Parliament want to effectively enforce age restrictions, they need clearer grounds under the Online Safety Act.
A YouTube spokesperson told Reuters that YouTube works with child safety experts to provide age-appropriate experiences that support many families in the UK. A TikTok spokesperson said it was 'very disappointed that Ofcom did not recognize TikTok's long-standing and new safety features' and explained that the company will continue to invest in user safety measures.
Ofcom will continue to monitor whether companies actually implement the measures they have promised, investigate the reality of recommended feeds, and consider enforcement action if there are suspected violations of the Online Safety Act. Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes said that while the changes could make children's online lives safer, companies have not yet taken the necessary steps to prevent minors from using feeds and to make them safer.
Related Posts:
in Web Service, Posted by log1d_ts