Tech giants promise British regulator they will tweak platforms to protect kids online

Several major tech firms promised a British regulator they will make significant changes to their platforms to better protect children.

The regulator, Ofcom, had required Roblox, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok to answer questions about their efforts to remove harmful algorithms, check kids’ ages and protect them from sexual predators by the end of April. All of the companies, except for YouTube and TikTok, said they would commit to certain changes.

Snap told Ofcom that it will adopt every one of the agency’s recommended grooming protection steps outlined in the Illegal Harms Codes. For example, the platform will restrict how adults can contact children on Snapchat, and the platform will stop pushing children to grow their friendship groups by connecting with people they don’t know.

The new protections apply only to children accessing Snapchat in the UK.

Roblox told Ofcom it will give parents the ability to turn off direct chats for children under age 16, and Meta has said it will build a new setting that will hide teens’ lists of connections on Instagram by default. 

Meta also will begin using AI to find “likely sexualized conversations between adults and teens in Instagram direct messages.” The tech giant told Ofcom that it will report any offenses it detects to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and will take action against offenders.

Ofcom said it wants Meta to do more to protect against grooming and is pushing the tech giant to adhere to additional safety measures laid out in the Illegal Harms Code.

“We are clear that these commitments must now translate into action,” an Ofcom press release said. “We’ve set clear deadlines by when we expect to see these changes in place and will be scrutinizing how effectively they are implemented.”

“If these promised improvements happen too slowly, or are not properly implemented, we will not hesitate to act.” 

The UK government is currently conducting a “consultation” on whether to implement a social media ban for young teenagers and is exploring other potential reforms that it has been testing in a pilot program launched in March.

The consultation will conclude on Tuesday and next steps are expected to be announced shortly thereafter.

Ofcom indicated that it will ratchet up its efforts to get platforms to comply more fully.

“We are determined to force through further changes, using the full extent of our powers and influence,” the press release said. “We will also bring our evidence and experience to bear as the government considers responses to its national conversation on children’s safety and social media.”

The regulator also said it is not happy with the answers it received from TikTok and YouTube. 

“TikTok and YouTube failed to commit to any significant changes to reduce harmful content being served to children, maintaining their feeds are already safe for children,” Ofcom said in a press release. “Our wealth of evidence, published today, suggests they are still not safe enough.”

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for YouTube said in a statement that the platform “provides industry-leading, age-appropriate, high-quality experiences for young viewers, working with child safety experts to deliver protections that support millions of families across the UK.”

“We welcome today’s news that others across the industry are committing to adopt features similar to those we already have available.”