Safety technology

This page contains details of an online randomised control trial to test different ways to encourage children to choose to use content controls to restrict exposure to harmful content during the sign-up process of a mock social media platform.

The Online Safety Act (OSA) makes businesses, and anyone else who operates a wide range of online services, legally responsible for keeping people (especially children) in the UK safe online.

Ofcom has launched a digital toolkit to help businesses comply with new online safety rules.

This page outlines that we’ll sometimes access regulated online services as part of our work to make online services safer for the people who use them.

Social media is a significant aspect of daily life for most of us. Almost all adult internet users use some form of online communication platform.

How Ofcom plans to issue information notices to relevant providers for the purpose of categorisation.

Two months out from online safety laws coming into force, Ofcom has warned tech firms they could face enforcement action if they don’t comply with new duties when the time comes.

We wanted to find out if behavioural techniques could be used to increase the number of users accessing online terms and conditions (T&Cs). And does accessing T&Cs actually make a difference to how people behave online?

This is a discussion paper by Ofcom’s Behavioural Insight Hub that presents research aimed at understanding the user relationships with social media T&Cs, specifically Community Guidelines.

This online trial tested different ways to encourage children to access age-appropriate user support materials (or help centre) during the sign-up process of a mock social media platform.