Part of Ofcom’s work is to carry out research in connection with our duties relating to UK-established video-sharing platforms, media literacy and the Online Safety Act 2023. As set out in Ofcom’s General Privacy Statement, this will involve Ofcom or our external research agencies, from time to time creating accounts on video-sharing platforms and social media platforms through the use of “fictional personas” that enable user-to-user interaction
From summer 2025, Ofcom plans to conduct further research using accounts set up by Ofcom colleagues, into users’ experience of potentially harmful content. The first stage of this research will involve creating several accounts on different services (including video-sharing platforms and social media platforms) using fictional personas to observe and record the content.
Following this we plan to conduct a second phase which may also include some cases basic interactions with other accounts such as following/ connecting with other accounts and liking content
This will mark the start of Ofcom conducting this type of research into users’ experiences of potentially harmful/harmful content online on a regular basis.
Please find an earlier version of this notice here.