The Office of Communications (Ofcom) found no significant change in the share of UK children encountering harmful online content during the first nine months of duties under the Online Safety Act 2023.
The child-safety duties took effect in July 2025. Ofcom’s review found the overall proportion of children exposed had not shifted significantly over that period. The measure describes how many children encountered material, rather than how often an individual child saw it.
The report found no new evidence that the severity of effects on children had changed. Children continued to report negative effects on their well-being after exposure to harmful content. Findings about specific feelings varied by content category, so the report did not describe one common response across all material.
Ofcom identified personalized feeds as a common route through which children encountered several types of harmful content. The report did not establish those feeds as the reason the overall proportion remained broadly stable.
The regulator recommended adding body stigma content and depression content, as defined in its report, to the Act’s priority-content category. Ofcom also plans to publish a revised Children’s Register by Jan. 2027.
