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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).

On Monday 2 November, MPs will debate a petition relating to the proposed ban on social media for under 16s.

Tony Vaughan MP, a member of the Petitions Committee, has been asked by the Committee to open the debate. MPs from all parties can take part, and the Government will send a minister to respond.

The petition reads:

Do not ban social media for under 16s

The petition, which received more than 217,000 signatures, states: I think the government shouldn't ban social media for under 16s. This is because for many young people social media is how they communicate with their friends. Some people view social media as a lifeline. A community, a supportive network. This is why I think the government shouldn't ban it.

In its response to the petition, provided on 4 March 2026, the Government said:

The government recognises the benefits of digital technologies, including social media, for children. We are consulting on how to ensure children have an enriching and positive experience online.

See full response from petition.parliament.uk

Petitions debates are general debates which allow MPs from all parties to discuss the important issues raised by one or more petitions, and put their concerns to Government Ministers.

Petition debates don't end with a vote to implement the request of a petition. This means MPs will not vote on the request of the petitions at the end of the debate. Instead, the aim is to give MPs an opportunity to discuss the issues raised by a petition, and get a response from the Government.

The Information Commissioner's Office has formally transitioned its name to the Information Commission.

Under new governance arrangements introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the work of the ICO is now overseen by a new Information Commission Board. The transition comes as the regulator opens its new headquarters in Manchester.

The Board's non-executive members have now  formally assumed their roles today. One of the Board's first actions was to appoint Maggie Carver as Deputy Chair of the Information Commission.

The legal entity will be known as the Information Commission, which is overseen by the Board. The organisation will be referred to as the Information Commission's Office, or ICO. The transition moves the ICO from a corporation sole (the Information Commissioner) to a collective decision-making Board.

UK internet censor Ofcom has provided a statement outlining progress in blocking 14 unnamed websites that it classes as 'small but risky' services. 7 have self blocked all UK users, 2 have introduced ID/age verification, 3 have refused to communicate. Ofcom writes:

Ofcom's Small but Risky Services Compliance Taskforce is a dedicated team focused on identifying and driving compliance from regulated services with small userbases that pose a disproportionate risk of serious harm to UK users.

On 24 July 2025, Ofcom launched an enforcement programme focussing on services whose principal purpose is the hosting or dissemination of Primary Priority Content or Priority Content, to ensure such services used highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing the service. Since then, the Compliance Taskforce has monitored and carried out active engagement with providers of 14 services that represent a significant risk of harm to children from the harmful content they host or disseminate. Today we are providing an update on progress.

Geo-blocks implemented:

Following proactive engagement by the Compliance Taskforce, seven of the identified services, each of which were dedicated to hosting particularly harmful types of content - including suicide and self-harm content, violent and graphic content, and eating disorder content - have geo-blocked the UK and are no longer accessible to UK users (including children) as at the date of this update. This includes five services dedicated to hosting graphic violence and serious injury content, and two dedicated to hosting suicide content.

Warning letters:

Providers of three identified services who failed to engage have been sent warning letters from Ofcoms Enforcement team. These notify them of their requirements under Section 12 of the Act to prevent and protect children from encountering content which is harmful to them on their service, including through the use of highly effective age assurance. We continue to assess whether additional action is required and will take into account their response in considering our options.

Highly effective age assurance implemented:

Two high profile services identified by the Compliance Taskforce, dedicated to hosting graphic violence and serious injury content, have implemented highly effective age assurance to prevent access by UK children following engagement.

Next steps:

The work under this enforcement programme has been coordinated across Ofcoms Supervision and Enforcement teams. It has so far demonstrated that seeking voluntary engagement from services is often the most rapid way to protect users. Particularly in cases involving smaller services that may not have a wide reach but that represent a significant risk of harm by hosting or promoting content that is particularly harmful to children.

We have made good progress with the majority of services we have engaged with so far. Going forward, we will continue to prioritise active engagement with services that pose the highest risk of harm to children.

Where service providers do not engage or fail to comply with their duties under the Act, including those in Section 12, we will not hesitate to move to formal enforcement action.

We will provide further updates on the work of the Compliance Taskforce in due course.