Safety technology

Content controls help users to tailor their feed to their preferences and reduce exposure to unwanted, potentially sensitive, or distressing content. In this research we tested how small design changes can impact on how much use people make of the content control tools available to them.

These reports outline the findings from a programme of research to explore the potential links between persuasive features on platforms and potential child financial harm. It also provides insight into children’s online spending habits across social sites and apps, video sharing platforms and gaming, and examines the influencing factors and attitudes towards children’s spending in these environments.

In this research project, we partnered with the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to conduct a comprehensive behavioural audit of popular social media and video-sharing platforms (VSPs). This audit, carried out between December 2024 and January 2025, systematically mapped online design practices and assessed their impact on user behaviour and outcomes, focusing on four core areas of interest: 1) sign-up process, 2) features and functionalities affecting time spent online, 3) negative sentiment tools, and 4) reporting.

This discussion paper covers two online experiments run by Ofcom’s Behavioural Insight Hub that tested how platform choice architecture affects use of content controls among adult users.

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.