The Online Safety Act 2023 is now in active enforcement in the UK. It places legal duties on platforms, search engines, and messaging apps to protect children from harmful content, backed by Ofcom's children's rules on age verification and algorithm design. It raises the floor, but it cannot build a child's judgment, so the strongest protection combines the law with digital literacy at home.
The short version: the Online Safety Act is a significant piece of legislation. It changes what major platforms are legally required to do. But it cannot replace the work of building children's digital literacy at home. It sets a floor; it does not build a ceiling.
What is the Online Safety Act?
The Online Safety Act 2023 is a UK law that came into full enforcement in early 2026. It is the most comprehensive piece of children's online safety legislation the UK has ever passed, and one of the most ambitious in the world.
The Act places new legal duties on technology companies, including social media platforms, search engines, video-sharing sites, and messaging apps, to protect their users, and particularly children, from harmful content and experiences.
In practical terms, it means platforms can no longer argue that they are simply neutral conduits for user content. They now have a legal obligation to think about the safety of what happens on their platforms, and to act on it.
What does the Online Safety Act require platforms to do?
The Act has several major requirements that directly affect children's experience online.
Age assurance
Platforms must introduce robust age verification systems to prevent under-18s from accessing harmful content. This does not mean children cannot use these platforms at all. It means platforms are required to take reasonable steps to know who is using them, and to apply different protections for younger users.
Algorithmic transparency
Platforms must assess how their recommendation algorithms affect children, and take steps to prevent children from being pushed towards harmful content through automated recommendation systems. This is significant: it targets the infrastructure of engagement, not just individual pieces of content.
Illegal content and harmful content
Platforms are required to remove illegal content quickly, and to implement measures to limit children's exposure to broadly harmful content, including content that promotes eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, and abuse.
Complaints and redress
Platforms must have accessible complaints mechanisms, and users must have a way to report harmful content and receive a response.
Transparency reports
The largest platforms must publish annual transparency reports showing how they are complying with the Act.
Enforcement by Ofcom
Ofcom is the regulator. Companies that fail to comply face fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover, or, in serious cases, having their services blocked in the UK.
What the Act doesn't do
The Online Safety Act is genuinely important. But it is worth being clear about its limits, because some coverage has suggested it does more than it does.
- It doesn't make the internet perfectly safe for children. No law can do that. The Act raises the floor, it requires platforms to do better, but determined bad actors will always find ways around regulatory requirements.
- It doesn't replace parental guidance. The Act targets platforms. It does not, and cannot, target every WhatsApp group, every private message, or every interaction your child has online. The regulation of individual behaviour is beyond its scope.
- It doesn't address everything children encounter. Content from outside the UK, platforms below the size threshold, and entirely new technologies that emerge after the Act was passed may not all be covered.
- It doesn't teach children to navigate the internet wisely. Regulation shapes the environment. Digital literacy shapes the child. These two things are complementary, but they are not the same.
What about the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026?
The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act, which received Royal Assent in 2026, adds further protections for under-18s in the UK. Among its provisions:
- Stronger social media age limits and age verification requirements.
- New guidance on smartphone use in schools, building on the 2024 ban guidance.
- Protections around data use for children under 18.
- Requirements for schools to address online safety as part of their safeguarding obligations.
Together with the Online Safety Act and Ofcom's children's safety rules, published in January 2026, this represents a significant shift in how the UK regulatory environment treats children's relationship with technology. The policy direction is clear: platforms have responsibilities. So do schools. And so, ultimately, do we as parents.
What Ofcom's children's safety rules mean in practice
Ofcom's rules, published in January 2026 and now in force, provide the operational detail behind the Online Safety Act. They specify what "taking children's safety seriously" actually means for different categories of platform.
Key points for parents:
- YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are all subject to these rules and have published, or are required to publish, their compliance approaches.
- Recommendation algorithms are specifically addressed. Platforms must not recommend content that could harm children's mental health, particularly around body image, self-harm, or isolation.
- Safe messaging guidelines apply to content about suicide and self-harm, a significant protection for adolescents.
- Parental controls must be more accessible, and platforms must make it easier for parents and children to report concerns.
Ofcom can and does investigate platforms that fail to comply, and has powers to impose significant fines.
What this means for your family
The regulatory landscape has shifted, and that matters. Platforms are under more pressure than they have ever been to take children's safety seriously. Ofcom has real enforcement powers. This is genuinely good news.
But good news about regulation should not translate into reduced vigilance at home. Here is why:
- Your child's experience online is shaped by more than algorithms. The relationships they build, the content they create, the way they feel about themselves when they log off, these are shaped by skills and habits that no regulation can install.
- Platforms will comply to the letter of the law, not the spirit. Regulatory compliance is not the same as genuine care for children's wellbeing. Companies will find the most efficient way to meet minimum requirements. The most important layer of protection your child has is the one they build themselves, and the one you help them build.
- Digital literacy is the long-term answer. A child who understands how recommendation algorithms work, who knows why platforms are designed to be addictive, who has practised stepping away from screens without falling apart, that child is far better protected than one whose safety depends solely on what a platform chooses to do.
This is what we mean when we say that digital literacy is more than digital safety. Safety is the minimum. Literacy is the goal.
Five things UK parents can do right now
- Check your child's privacy settings across all platforms they use. Most social media platforms now have dedicated family and teen settings, as Ofcom's rules have required more accessible controls. Review these together with your child, not for them.
- Have a conversation about algorithms. Ask your child: have you ever noticed that once you watch one video, it keeps suggesting more? That is not an accident. This is the starting point for building critical thinking about the content they consume.
- Know what platforms your child is actually using. The gap between what parents think their children are using and what they are actually using is often significant. An honest conversation, not an interrogation, helps.
- Talk about what to do when something goes wrong. Children who feel they will get in trouble for seeing something upsetting online are less likely to tell a parent. The most important message you can give is: you will never be in trouble for telling me.
- Create a family tech agreement. A shared document, not rules imposed by parents but a conversation the whole family has together, covers screen time, device-free zones, social media, online safety, and what happens when things go wrong. Download your free family tech agreement here.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Online Safety Act in force now?
Yes. The Online Safety Act came into full enforcement in early 2026. Ofcom's children's safety rules are also now active, with Ofcom increasing scrutiny of YouTube and TikTok in May 2026.
Does the Online Safety Act ban social media for children?
No. The Online Safety Act introduces age verification requirements and platform obligations, but does not ban social media for under-18s. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 gives the government powers to introduce age restrictions through secondary legislation.
What age does the Online Safety Act protect?
The Act's children's provisions focus primarily on under-18s, with heightened protections for younger children, though 84% of children aged 8-12 are still using platforms with a minimum age of 13.
Can Ofcom fine companies that break the rules?
Yes. Ofcom can fine companies up to 10% of global annual turnover for serious non-compliance, and can require access to services to be blocked in the UK.
Will the UK ban social media for under 16s?
The government's consultation closed May 2026. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 gives powers to introduce restrictions quickly. The government has stated it will introduce some form of age or functionality restrictions by end of 2026.
havyn is a children's digital literacy app helping children build the skills they need to thrive in a digital world, not just survive it.