Ofcom Is Failing Children: Online Safety Act Enforcement Needs Stronger Regulator Action and Accountability
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial. "The Guardian view on online harms: Ofcom is failing at its job | Editorial | The Guardian." October 29, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The Online Safety Act was supposed to make children safer online, but Ofcom's latest report shows kids are seeing just as much harmful content as before. The Guardian argues the regulator and ministers are too timid and should use their powers more forcefully, impose a duty of care, and make tech executives personally liable for serious failings.
Conclusion
Ofcom and the government are failing to protect children from online harms, so regulators and ministers must use their existing powers more forcefully and strengthen accountability, including a duty of care and criminal penalties for tech executives, rather than merely expressing disappointment.
Premises
- Ofcom's report found that the proportion of children viewing harmful content (pornography, self-harm, bullying, abuse, violence) has not fallen in the nine months since the Online Safety Act's safety duties took effect.
- Personalised feeds are the main channel for delivering harmful content, and girls and children with special educational needs or disabilities are disproportionately exposed to suicide and self-harm material.
- Major platforms (Meta, TikTok, X) are mounting legal challenges against Ofcom and appear to put their interests above the law, which indicates a lack of a 'safety culture'.
- Ofcom's chief executive sounded too tentative when questioned by MPs, suggesting the regulator lacks the resolve needed for enforcement.
- The government's approach to big tech differs little from its predecessor's, and planned measures such as the under-16 social media ban and photo ID checks can only work if the regulator can enforce them.
- The Act relied on a code of conduct rather than a duty of care and executive accountability, leaving accountability at the top of tech too easy to evade.
- Regulators and ministers already have powers to secure change but have not shown an appetite to use them.
Assumptions
- The unchanged proportion of children seeing harmful content is a valid measure of the Act's and Ofcom's effectiveness, and nine months is long enough to judge.
- The lack of improvement is attributable to regulatory weakness rather than to the inherent difficulty of the task or to the early stage of implementation.
- A tentative public tone from Ofcom's chief reflects a tentative enforcement posture.
- A statutory duty of care and the threat of criminal penalties would change tech company behaviour more than the current code-based approach.
- Existing powers are sufficient to produce meaningful improvement if used more assertively.
- Platform litigation against Ofcom signals bad faith rather than legitimate legal disagreement.