Repressive new online safety measures have failed to limit the proportion of children suffering harm from social media, the UK's internet censor has admitted. The proportion of children being fed unsafe content that often left them frightened,
confused and upset, was almost unchanged, according to an Ofcom review of the first nine months of supposedly strict requirements on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Under the Online Safety Act, the tech giants had to protect
children from harmful content including pornography, serious violence, suicide material, racism, misogyny and bullying, with a series of specific duties introduced in summer 2025. But Ofcom found that at a total level there was no significant change in
the proportion of children encountering harmful content over the first nine months after the children's safety duties came into force in July 2025. It called the finding concerning and said there was no evidence indicating a change in the severity of
harm. The regulator is already facing a wave of legal actions from tech companies challenging its powers including the Instagram operator Meta, as well as TikTok and X. It has warned it risks being absolutely clobbered legally by deep-pocketed
individuals and firms. Of course Ofcom has spun the abject failure as a reason for doubling down on censorship. The censor has proposed adding additional censorship rules banning content that makes children feel bad about their bodies or else
somehow makes them feel unhappy (with the right think terminology equivalencing this to mental health issues like depression).
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