Nine months after the UK introduced strict safety rules for major social media platforms, children are still encountering harmful material online at almost the same rate as before. A review by Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, found no significant change in the proportion of young users exposed to damaging content, or in the severity of harm they experienced, since new legal duties under the Online Safety Act took effect in July 2025.
The regulator identified personalized recommendation feeds—often known as "for you" algorithms—as the primary driver of harmful material. According to Ofcom, these automated feeds frequently served young users graphic violence, pornography, and content related to suicide and eating disorders, with girls disproportionately affected. The review also warned that boys seeking fitness or motivational advice were often quickly directed toward extreme misogyny and racism, aided by misspelled hashtags and coded language that bypass automated moderation systems.
Child protection advocates and campaigners described the findings as alarming. The charity NSPCC argued that platforms continue to prioritize user engagement over safety, calling for urgent changes to recommendation features that keep children hooked. Ian Russell, whose 14-year-old daughter Molly died in 2017 after viewing suicide-related posts, called the lack of progress "staggering but sadly not surprising." He urged the regulator to investigate the core design features of apps such as Instagram and TikTok rather than focusing on narrow technicalities.
In response, Ofcom defended its oversight, emphasizing that it is regulating an industry that went unchecked for more than two decades. The watchdog pointed to early progress in age verification and protections against grooming, adding that its data did not yet reflect recent pressure on major platforms or modest reductions in harm seen on services such as YouTube and Pinterest. The report comes as the UK government prepares a planned ban on social media for children under 16 next spring, though campaigners stress that future restrictions must not distract from enforcing existing platform obligations.