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Published on
April 24, 2025
5 min read
UK Regulator Ofcom Publishes Child Protection Rules, Targets Social Media Platforms
UK watchdog Ofcom has released the final version of the country’s childrens codes, Sky News Reported. Ofcom’s child protection rules are part of the UK’s Online Safety Act. The rules outline websites that must take action to keep young people safe online. Under the new rules, the UK could impose heavy fines on social media companies or ban them entirely.
A Watershed Moment
Commenting on UK social media regulation by Ofcom, Technology Secretary in the UK Peter Kyle termed the rules a watershed moment for the country. According to Kyle, the new online safety regulation will help the country to hold social media companies to account while fixing the lawless, poisonous digital environments.
While unveiling the rules, the UK regulator has termed Ofcom’s online safety codes a ‘reset for children online’, claiming that they will provide safer feeds.
“This means safer social media feeds with less harmful and dangerous content, protections from being contacted by strangers and effective age checks on adult content,” Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dawes said.
Ofcom says the new codes outline obligations for protecting children from violent, misogynistic, abusive, or hateful content. The codes will also protect them against self harm, bullying, and dangerous challenges.
Social Media Company Requirements
Under these rules, social media platforms are required to conduct risk assessment. The regulator will start imposing fines and applying for court orders to ban websites that commit serious offences in the UK starting July 25.
The codes were developed with inputs from 13000 parents and 27000 children. It outlines over 40 measures that social platforms are expected to comply with, including filtering harmful content, conducting age checks, and reviewing, assessing, and acting on harmful content with speed.
Digital platforms operating in the UK will also be required to ensure that children can report or register complaints about content with ease. They must support and allow them to mute, block, or even disable comments on their accounts.
Not Enough
But people who campaigned for the new rules think they are not sufficient to guarantee the online safety of minors in the UK. Ian Russel termed the codes as weak, saying they give social media companies plenty of control. Russel’s child, Molly took her own life after watching harmful content online.
“I am dismayed by the lack of ambition in today’s codes. Instead of moving fast to fix things, the painful reality is that Ofcom’s measures will fail to prevent more young deaths like my daughter Molly’s. Ofcom’s risk-averse approach is a bitter pill for bereaved parents to swallow. Their overly cautious codes put the bottom line of reckless tech companies ahead of tackling preventable harm,” he said.
Russell wants the UK Prime Minister to intervene in the matter. Another parent, Hollie Dance, who lost a child through an accident occasioned by an online experiment or prank shares similar sentiments.
“Why are we tip-toeing around these huge platforms over children’s safety? The platforms routinely allege they do not allow harmful content. This doesn’t only gaslight Ofcom but gaslights bereaved parents too, those of us who have lost children to this harmful content. We can’t take a softly-softly approach to the platforms. Children’s mental health and safety should be paramount,” she said.
Global Action
The UK passed the Online Safety Act last year. Australia became the first country to ban social media for under 16 after its Senate approved the ban in November 2024. Even so, questions have emerged about the effectiveness of the ban after a research showed that Australian children can bypass the age restrictions introduced by social media platforms.
Meta said it has moved young people on its platform to the new teen accounts on Instagram.
“Teens in the UK have automatically been moved into these enhanced protections and under 16s need a parent’s permission to change them,” a Meta spokesperson said.
Other countries that are taking legal action to tighten laws relating to the safety of minors online include Indonesia and the US.
