Since becoming Children’s Commissioner I have spoken to thousands of children, parents, school leaders and other professionals about the online world and the impact it is having on children and young people today. I have been extremely alarmed by some of the things young people have told me about their online experiences – and from conversations with the adults around them it is evident many of parents and professionals share my concern.
While it is undeniable the online world offers children a wealth of opportunities to learn, play and explore, it also exposes too many young people to a variety of online harms. Therefore, it is vital we all work together to keep children safe online including tech companies.
Earlier this month I brought representatives from social media platforms together to challenge them about their duties of care towards their young users.
Flanked by seven of my Youth Ambassadors: Maximilian, Penelope, Chan, Valerie, Ben, Rylie and Stanley, I invited these influential tech reps to explore children’s hopes for a safer online world, one year on from the introduction of the Online Safety Act.
As a statutory consultee of the Online Safety Act, I have been working with Ofcom to ensure it implements the Act in a way that not only provides children with the highest protections from online harms, but also helps them remain active participants in the online world, instead of isolating them or restricting them from all its benefits.
Ofcom’s Children’s Code should be an important first step forwards to create a safer online world for children, but I have expressed strong disappointment that it is not yet strong enough to protect children from the multitude of harms they are exposed to online every day. I will continue to work with Ofcom to sure the Code is fully implemented to its fullest potential to ensure that it adequately protects children.
More widely, everyone has a role to play in keeping children safe online: parents, politicians, professionals working with children and tech companies.
I was particularly interested in hearing more about how the tech industry is preparing for the changes outlined in the Children’s Code – so I invited representatives from Meta, Google, X, TikTok and Ukie to discuss their plans and to offer them the chance to hear directly from my Young Ambassadors about their online experiences.
The experiences my Youth Ambassadors shared with these companies demonstrate clearly why change is needed.
They questioned the roll out of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology on multiple platforms, why this technology exists and allows users to undress women through the use of deeply concerning ‘nudifying’ apps; why platforms have rolled out AI without giving users a say in whether they wanted it and the impact generative AI content was having on young people – including through the prevalence of sexually explicit deepfake imagery.
They discussed the addictive nature of social media, asking what tech companies were doing to keep young users safe online and what responsibilities the tech companies thought they had in relation to their young users.
They also spoke about the need for greater safety online; they grilled the tech companies on their plans to address underage users and highlighted how simple it was for them to circumvent age requirements to join platforms before they were 13.
They also spoke passionately about the danger of algorithms had on their lives and how the harmful content they were served on their feed impacted them and their friends.
The conversation about how we shape a safe online world has moved on since I last convened a roundtable of tech companies and my Young Ambassadors last year but clearly far more needs to be done.
While I was pleased to hear about plans and some initial signs of progress discussed by tech companies, it was evident in last week’s conversations that more work is needed – and protecting young users is still not being seen by them as an urgent enough priority. I reminded the tech companies of their legal and moral duty to keeping our children safe online.
The Big Ambition survey last year showed that online safety remains one of the biggest issues for children and young people today, and this concern was echoed by school leaders in the Schools and College Survey – where online safety was the second biggest concern for students behind mental health. I’ve spoken to thousands of children around the country in all sorts of settings and from all sorts of backgrounds and the message is clear: the online world needs to change.
I particularly want to thank my Youth Ambassadors past and present for speaking so openly and honestly about their experiences. Their voices were powerful, informed and deeply moving – a stark reminder of why this work matters so much.
As we look ahead, I will continue to champion children’s voices at the heart of decision making and push for real change that reflects their experiences. I look forward to building on last week’s productive and challenging conversation with tech companies to ensure children are kept safe online by design.
We have the opportunity now to make meaningful change that prioritises children’s safety online but we must not rest on our laurels. The Online Safety Act and Children’s Code must be more than words on a page – they must be tools for transformation.
Together, we can and must build an online world that allows children to learn, play and explore in a way that is safe and fit for a modern childhood.
