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Ofcom’s Verdict: UK Safety Rules Haven’t Cut Children’s Exposure to Harmful Content

In July 2025, the UK switched on some of the toughest child safety rules in the world. Under the Online Safety Act, social media, video and search services became legally responsible for keeping harmful content away from children: checking ages, taming recommendation feeds and removing dangerous material quickly. On 22 October 2026, the regulator in charge, Ofcom, published its first official report on whether that has made a difference. Its answer was blunt: so far, not much.

What Ofcom Found

Ofcom’s report on content harmful to children is the first of its kind under the Act, drawing on regular surveys of UK children aged 8 to 17. Its central finding, in the regulator’s own words:

“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. This finding is concerning and shows that further progress is needed to protect children online.”

The detail behind that sentence is just as stark:

• Most children still see something harmful. The majority of UK children surveyed said they had come across at least one piece of harmful content in the previous four weeks.
• The most serious harms haven’t gone away. As reported by Forbes and others, 14% of 11–17-year-olds had seen suicide or self-harm content in the previous four weeks, and 23% had seen content promoting eating disorders.
• It isn’t getting less severe either. Ofcom said it had no new evidence of any change in the severity of the harm children experience.
• Feeds keep delivering it. Personalised recommendation feeds came up again and again as the way harmful material reached children who weren’t looking for it.

Ofcom did point to some progress: age checks are now far more widespread, and protections against grooming and child sexual abuse material have been strengthened. Some individual services also showed reductions in certain kinds of harmful content. But none of that has added up to a meaningful fall overall. Ofcom has also noted that the period studied came before it stepped up pressure on the largest platforms, and it has warned that firms which don’t comply can expect enforcement action.

Ofcom also advised the government to widen the law’s list of “priority” harmful content to include material that promotes depression and content that stigmatises people’s bodies.

What Parents Can Control Tonight

Ofcom’s report is a reminder that the most reliable protection is still the one set at home. DNS filtering works one step before any app or website opens: when a device looks up where a service lives, ShomerDNS simply refuses to answer for domains you don’t want reached. That gives parents a few things no platform rule can:

• You decide which feeds exist in your home. If an app’s recommendation feed is the problem, you don’t have to wait for the company to fix it. Add the app to your personal Block List and it stops loading on every device on your network, signed in or not.
• Whole categories are covered from day one. ShomerDNS already blocks large categories of adult, gambling and malicious sites, so a child who wanders off a platform doesn’t land somewhere worse.
• It doesn’t rely on an age check. A blocked domain stays blocked however old an account claims to be.

To be clear about the limits: DNS filtering works on whole sites and apps, not individual videos or posts. It can stop TikTok from loading, but it can’t pick out one harmful clip inside an app you’ve allowed. For an extra layer inside the browser, the free ShomerDNS add-on for Chrome and Firefox hides images and videos on every page by default, so a harmful thumbnail or clip doesn’t show even on a site you’ve allowed. It also blocks sites on the ShomerDNS filter list when the VPN isn’t connected. Our article on DNS filtering vs. parental controls explains how the different layers fit together.

Filtering on a home router also only protects devices on that network. The ShomerDNS VPN keeps filtering in place wherever a device goes, and Frum Phone locks filtering and app installs behind a parent-only PIN on a child’s own Android phone.

A Practical Checklist for Parents

• Don’t assume the law has it covered. Ofcom itself says children’s exposure hasn’t fallen yet. Plan as if the platforms won’t protect your child for you.
• Filter at the network. Set up ShomerDNS on your router so every device in the house is covered at once.
• Question the feed apps. Look at which apps on your child’s device are built around an endless recommendation feed, and decide whether each one belongs.
• Lock it down on their own phone. A child’s phone leaves the house. Use a setup like Frum Phone or the ShomerDNS VPN so filtering travels with it.
• Keep talking. Ask what your children are seeing, not just which apps they use. A child who knows they can tell you about something upsetting is better protected than any filter alone can make them.

The UK has built one of the most ambitious online safety regimes anywhere, and the regulator deserves credit for publishing an honest scorecard. But that scorecard says children are still seeing what they shouldn’t. Until the platforms change, the decisions that matter most are still made at home.