UK watchdogs set April deadline for social media on child safety

Britain’s media regulator Ofcom and privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), have demanded that major social media platforms do more to keep children off their services and warned that firms are failing to enforce minimum age rules.

Ofcom told Facebook, Instagram, Roblox, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube to show by April 30 how they would tighten age checks, restrict strangers from contacting children, make feeds safer, and stop testing new products on minors as part of the latest implementation phase of Britain’s Online Safety Act.

The demand comes as the government weighs banning under-16s from social platforms, a move similar to Australia.

The ICO also issued an open letter urging firms to adopt modern, viable age-assurance tools to prevent under-13s from accessing services not designed for them, saying the technology is available.

Ofcom can fine companies up to 10% of qualifying global revenue, and the ICO can issue fines of up to 4% of a company’s global annual turnover.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Age assurance tools exist, while regulators avoid picking specific vendors

Guidance backs “modern, viable” age assurance and moves away from platforms that only ask for a birthdate, which regulators say does not work and cannot meet Ofcom’s “highly effective” bar 1.
Survey results underline the gap, with 31% of children aged 9-12 using TikTok even though the minimum age is 13 2.
Authorities want “highly effective” options already sold and used, including facial age estimation, photo-ID matching, and digital identity services 2.
Some facial age estimation vendors report a 99.3% true positive rate when classifying 13 to 17 year olds as under 21 as of September 2024, which they use to back claims that the tech works at scale 3.

The UK plan fits a global playbook, with costs and workarounds

Britain’s rules sit alongside similar laws in the EU, Australia, and several US states, which leaves tech firms managing a patchwork of obligations 1.
Budgets take a hit since third-party age verification averages 65 cents per check, which can price out smaller platforms 4.
Workarounds are already appearing, including an 1,800% jump in ProtonVPN downloads, a virtual private network service that can help people mask their location online, after the UK Online Safety Act took effect 4.
Large-scale avoidance can steer people toward non-compliant and potentially less safe services, plus mandatory ID checks may shut out millions who lack official documents 4.