What's being done to help keep children safe online? Ask Ofcom expert - £200 voucher to be won

[MaddyMumsnet]

Created for Ofcom

The online world can feel overwhelming and, at times, unsafe for children - What measures are being taken to protect kids online? How can social media platforms prevent children from encountering harmful content? What steps can parents take to ensure their child's online safety?

• Everyone who shares a questions on the thread below by 28/6/24 will be entered into a prize draw
• One lucky Mumsnet user will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice
• Almudena will be back on the week of the 8/7/24 to answer some of your questions

About Almudena, Online Safety Policy Director:
Almudena Lara has almost 20 years’ experience in online child protection, and has worked in private, public, regulatory and charity sectors. She joined Ofcom in 2023 with responsibility for child protection, and previously worked at Google and the NSPCC on creating better protections for children online.
Almudena said: "My focus is on tackling online harm by helping to make sure the right rules and resources are in place to protect people, especially children, from them. It's crucial that we act now to help build a safer life online for everyone."

Here’s what Ofcom has to say:
Ofcom is the UK's independent communications regulator, and we keep an eye on broadcast media, telecoms, post and spectrum. Under the Online Safety Act, we're now the UK's online safety regulator and have a responsibility to make online services safer for people who use them by making sure companies have effective systems in place to protect users from harm. We’re proposing measures like safer algorithms, effective age checks and better content moderation to help keep children safer on social media and tech platforms. This aims to protect children from seeing harmful content such as suicide, self-harm and pornography.

So whether you have a question on online age checks, safer algorithms or measures being taken to combat online bullying, post your question on this thread for our Ofcom Expert to answer.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Hi littlecottonbud. Under the Online Safety Act social media apps, search and other online services must prevent children from encountering the most harmful content relating to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, and pornography. But they must also minimise children’s exposure to other serious harms, including violent, hateful or abusive material, bullying content, and content promoting dangerous challenges. Our proposed measures are designed to make sure tech firms do this effectively, and we'll be holding them to account to make sure this happens. We will be able to take enforcement action if they fail to comply with the rules.

Our proposals to keep children safer online include effective moderation - because let's face it, it's not really working at the moment. Under our measures, all services, like social media apps and search services, must have content moderation systems and processes to take quick action on harmful content and large search services should use a ‘safe search’ setting for children, which can’t be turned off and must filter out the most harmful content. They must also have effective reporting and complaints procedures. Other broader measures require clear policies from services on what kind of content is allowed, how content is prioritised for review, and for content moderation teams to be well-resourced and trained.

We know that harmful content online has devastated the lives of far too many. We will do everything we can to protect children and hold platforms to account. Our job is enforcing the Online Safety Act - as part of this social media companies will have to put a stop to toxic algoritihms serving up harmful content to children. They'll also have to carry out robust age checks so they know which of their users are children and they can make sure they're having an online experience that is right for their age. The Online Safety Act gives us powers to hold these companies to account - including fining them.

Hi jellybeanpopper, it's great to hear that your childrens' school is already teaching them about staying safe online - as we both know, it's so important that they are protected online. There are lots of brilliant resources out there to support parents. For example, NSPCC has some guides for families with advice on talking to your kids about online safety. Education is one part of the puzzle, in our role as online safety regulator we're proposing practical measures tech platforms must take to prevent children from being exposed to online harm in the first place.

Hi MumC2141. This is such a tough one. Many apps and browsers have different parental controls, which can help you control what children can and can't do. But their features vary a lot and this still puts the emphasis on parents to take action. We want the emphasis to be back on the platforms - putting safety first and taking steps to protect children on their sites, without leaving that burden to parents only. It's so important to talk regularly to your children about how they live their lives online and what they enjoy about it. Let them know they can talk to you about anything they see.

Hi LittleDeeAndMe. The Online Safety Act became law in late 2023, but Ofcom's powers to enforce it don't kick in until we have consulted on the rules that tech firms will have to follow and Parliament has approved these. but we have wasted no time in getting things moving. We've already launched consultations on what tech firms will need to do to protect people from illegal harms and they steps they will need to take to protect children online. We're working with expert bodies, campaign groups and industry throughout this process and we're already seeing results. For example, Snapchat recently announced new measures that will make it much harder for strangers to contact under 18s on the platform.

Hi JacCharlton. We know many parents, like yourself, are worried about the sort of content that children could come across online. We've heard directly form children too, who tell us this content is too easily available online. And for too long, there has not been anything in place to hold tech firms to account and make sure they put a stop to this. We are working to change that. Our proposed measures will mean platforms have to protect children from seeing things such as pornography, suicide and self-harm content. They'll have to take action on harrassment and strangers contacting under 18s. All of this will take time, but help is on the way.

Hi TrustPenguins. One of the most important things is to try and make sure your child has an age-appropriate experience. Many social media apps have a minimum age of 13, for example. If a younger child uses a false age to sign up to one of these services, that age will 'follow' them. So they may end up seeing content or accessing features of the app that are not suitable for under 18s, before they have reached 18.

I really hear you on this one Speaking - I don't think our job as parents ever ends! There is no one size fits all approach for every family, it's about finding a balance that is right for you and yours - and i know this can be tricky! Our proposed measures mean that social media apps, search and other online services must prevent children from encountering the most harmful content. We're also telling them they must take practical steps to help families. These include having clear and accessible terms of service, and making sure that children can easily report content and make complaints.

I'd really recommend that you recognise your child has a life online – show you understand that being online is important and opens the world up to them. Agree some basic ground rules that you follow too. And it's so important to keep talking and listening – talk regularly about how they live their lives online and what they enjoy about it. Let them know they can talk to you about anything they see.

Hi chickenpotnoodle, like you say it's so important to recognise that your child has a life online and I would really encourage you to have open conversations about this if you can.Talk regularly about how they live their lives online and what they enjoy about it. Let them know they can talk to you about anything they see.
You can set profiles for your children on the services they use - including YouTube and iplayer - make sure you tell the services how old your child is. When a child self-declares a false age to gain access to social media or online games, as they get older, so does their claimed user age. This means they could be placed at greater risk of encountering age-inappropriate or harmful content online.

Hi prawncocktailcrispss, sounds like your family is clued up on online safety. Raising awareness and having an open dialogue with children about the risks online is so important, especially so they know they can come to us for support if they need it. As online safety regulator, we are proposing steps tech platforms must take to help protect children from being exposed to this kind of harmful content or being contacted by strangers. We want platforms to be built safely and we will be holding tech companies accountable.

Hi footgoldcycle, we totally understand why you feel this way so you can make sure your kids are protected online. Many apps and browsers have different parental controls, which can help. But their features vary a lot and this still puts the emphasis on parents to take action. We want the emphasis to be back on the platforms - putting safety first and taking steps to protect children on their sites, without leaving that burden to parents only. We're consulting on a set of practical measures to do this, including robust age checks to ensure platforms know who is a child on their service so they can have an age appropriate experience. In the meantime, organisations such as Parentzone has helpful guides on parental controls.

Hi pushchairprincess - you're absolutely right that online bullying can have a serious impact on the mental health of young people. Having open conversations with children about issues like this is crucial, so they know there's support there if they need it. We also believe it is the job of tech platforms to build sites and apps safer to help prevent harm from taking place on their services.

That's great. Thank you for your response.

thanks for your answers - gives me some hope that things will improve.

thanks for your answers - I did not have chance to ask my question due to not logging on - my bad - but my question has been answered - it's one of my biggest worried for my dc's

thank you !

Measures must be introduced to ensure social media platforms take down inappropriate content.

My 13 year old niece has had a fake Facebook page set up using her name and photograph. Our family had made numerous attempts to contact Facebook to ask them to take it down but not one of us has had a reply.

I wish there was an easier way to block apps from accessing my WiFi - accessing the phone and blocking it that way isn’t a solution that works.

If they don’t already, can smart phones be programmed to stop children accessing certain things? I know you can put things on to stop children downloading apps without clearance but they can still just jump on safari or google etc and just access things like Facebook, TikTok and snap chat that way…..
Also with ‘disappearing messages it makes it so hard for parents to monitor… parents should be able to ban disappearing messages so they can’t be turned on by either their child or the other person… and also be able to prevent messages from being deleted! This would deter perverts in the first place if their messages are there forever!!
In a similar way maybe settings could be sorted so children can not send photos?! My DD is 13 & there are real issues in her year group where children are sending nudes to their boy/girl friend and then this is being shared!
Also chat apps such as WhatsApp and Snapchat… you should be able to remove yourself and request that you can not be readded to groups, my DD has removed herself several times from year chats where inappropriate images are shared and just keeps getting re-added.
also (she tells me) if you report something that someone has shared on snap chat it just alerts the group admin, which in her case is other 12/13 year olds … there should be an option to report to the social platform itself for the content to be policed by someone !!
Perhaps smart phones could be bought specifically for children and already have all the restrictions in place for the less techy parents amongst us!

How will you take enforcement action against these platforms please? The laws in the countries where these platforms are generated come under American law or Chinese law etc… how will British laws be enforced on these powerful countries ?

Parents need to keep up to date with what is going on online and actively talk to their kids & monitor their accounts.

Schools educate about online risks etc but the majority of IT access is at home & the majority of parents have no idea what their kids are looking at, or that they are access sites under age by lying (because "everyone does it").

Hope I am not too late for this Q and A - not been on mumsnet for a few weeks.
My question would be - Do you feel you have enough powers to make a difference and has the new Labour government been supportive of your cause ?

@MaddyMumsnet morning - the questions have been answered - thank you for such an important thread - has a winner been drawn please ?

I'm not very tech savvy and my kids are more computer literate - how can I be confident that whatever controls I use on their devices will not just be overriden by them?