UK media and privacy regulators, on Thursday urged major social media platforms to enhance their efforts in preventing children from accessing their services, cautioning that these companies are not adequately enforcing their own minimum age policies.
The UK government is contemplating stricter measures to limit the access of children to social media, including a proposal to prohibit individuals under the age of 16 from using such platforms, similar to actions taken by Australia.
Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office expressed growing concerns regarding algorithm-driven feeds that expose children to harmful or addictive content.
Chief executive of Ofcom, Melanie Dawes stated, “These online services are well-known, yet they are not prioritising children’s safety in their products. This situation must change immediately, or Ofcom will take action.”
UK media regulator plans to demonstrate safe social media use for children
In the most recent phase of implementing Britain’s Online Safety Act, Ofcom instructed Facebook and Instagram both owned by Meta (META.O) as well as Roblox, Snapchat (SNAP.N), ByteDance’s TikTok, and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube to demonstrate by April 30 how they plan to enhance age verification, limit contact from strangers to children, improve feed safety, and cease testing new products on minors.
The ICO also sent an open letter to these platforms, urging them to implement “modern, viable” age-assurance tools to prevent those under 13 from accessing services not intended for them.
Chief Executive of the ICO, Paul Arnold further stated, “Modern technology is readily available, so there is no justification for inaction.”
Ofcom has the authority to impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s qualifying global revenue, while the ICO can levy fines of up to 4% of a company’s global annual turnover.
Last month, the privacy watchdog fined Reddit nearly 14.5 million pounds for failing to establish effective age verification measures and for unlawfully processing children’s data.
Read more: Is Pakistan planning social media ban for under 16?
