Ofcom has unveiled its finalized playbook for tech companies to follow in order to make sure their social media sites and gaming apps don’t breach the UK’s Online Safety Act. 

These guidelines now include more than 40 “practical measures”—called Codes of Practice—that search engines and gaming or social media platforms will need to implement by July 24, 2025. If they don’t, Ofcom is empowered to impose hefty fines and even apply for court orders to ban non-compliant sites and apps in the UK. 

At a high level, these Codes of Practice are designed to prevent minors from encountering harmful content related to things such as suicide, eating disorders and pornography. This will involve adjusting recommendation algorithms to filter out this content from kids’ feeds. 

Companies also need to have strong and effective systems for age verification. Platforms and products with minimum age requirements must assume that younger kids are among their users and ensure they deliver an age-appropriate experience to them. And all sites and apps need to have a process in place for quickly reviewing and removing harmful content as soon as it’s noticed. 

The list goes on to include requirements for giving children more control over their online experiences with options to indicate what they want to see and who they want to block, and to disable comments on their own posts. Kids also need to be able to easily report harmful content they encounter, and tech companies must respond to these reports with appropriate action. As well, every company needs to have a dedicated person in place who is accountable for children’s safety, as well as a senior body that reviews how it’s managing the risk to children annually. 

Ofcom defined these rules based on feedback from more than 27,000 children and 13,000 parents, in addition to consulting with the children’s industry, charities and child safety experts.  

The UK regulator first teased its new rules in December, noting at the time that it has the power to issue fines of up to US$22 million, or 10% of a non-compliant company’s qualifying worldwide revenue (whichever is greater). 

“These changes are a reset for children online,” said Ofcom chief Melanie Dawes in a statement. “They will mean safer social media feeds with less harmful and dangerous content, protections from being contacted by strangers, and effective age checks on adult content. Ofcom has been tasked with bringing about a safer generation of children online, and if companies fail to act they will face enforcement.”

Image courtesy of A Perry via Unsplash.