Conversations around social media and its dangers for children have been sweeping the internet as of late. As governments put bans in place on social media for under 16s, and the UK considers similar action, UK regulator Ofcom criticises YouTube and TikTok for not being safe enough for children.
"TikTok and YouTube failed to commit to any significant changes to reduce harmful content being served to children, maintaining their feeds are already safe for children," Ofcom said (via the BBC). "Our wealth of evidence, published today, suggests they are still not safe enough."
Both TikTok and YouTube maintain they have strong safety features, with the latter saying it worked with child safety experts to provide better experiences on its platform for children. Clearly, the work isn't enough to impress Ofcom.
Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom chief executive said that the regulatory body would move to a formal investigation if it needed to. According to experts, it seems that due to the rise in young children using social media, the conversation has shifted from harmful content being removed, to the problem being it appearing in the first place. It's yet to be seen how social media giants will respond to this new age, where governments are aware of how YouTube, TikTok, and the like are potentially harmful for children.