Snap, Meta and Roblox have confirmed to Ofcom that they will introduce new safety measures designed to protect children from online strangers, ranging from tighter default settings, to AI detection tools and direct chat controls. The p[platforms have made the commitments in response to Ofcom’s demands in March to urgently strengthen protections for children online.
Under the new commitments, children’s safety will be considered before new features are rolled out to them. Five of the services have committed to notifying Ofcom about their updated risk assessments before making significant changes to their services. This aims to make sure that Ofcom has the opportunity to scrutinise the impact on children of any new products and/or features before they launch. In response to further concerns, particularly in relation to underage children from accessing services, Ofcom has announced a five point action plan to hold platforms to account for the safety of children on their platforms.
Snap has agreed to make significant changes by adopting all recommended grooming prevention measures under Ofcom’s Illegal Harms Codes. Adult strangers will be prevented from contacting children by default and children will not be encouraged to expand friendship groups to strangers. Snap will also introduce age-checks to all users over the summer to ensure that all under-18s are covered by these measures. Roblox has committed to build upon its existing anti-grooming measures, including by giving parents the ability to switch off direct chat services for under-16s.
Meta will develop a new setting to hide teens’ connection lists on Instagram by default and will introduce AI tools to detect likely sexualised conversations between adults and teens in Instagram direct messages and to report accounts to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Ofcom have also written to the UK government regarding minimum age enforcement, as current online safety laws do not explicitly require services to keep underage children off their platforms by using effective age checks, and Ofcom’s latest research shows that 84% of children 8-12 are still using at least one of YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat despite these platforms having a minimum age of 13. The ICO can currently take action under data protection laws.
Ofcom’s scrutiny of these online services will continue under its five-point action plan, including:
- Monitoring implementation of services’ new commitments to ensure they work in practice
- Reviewing evidence on recommender feeds and explore whether to use new inspection powers
- Launching enforcement action where there is suspected non-compliance with the Online Safety Act
- Monitoring real-world experiences of children through research
- Engaging with Government on outcome of its consultations to ensure minimum age policies under online safety laws can be strengthened where necessary,
