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Impact of regulation on children's digital lives

From 2017 to 2026, a plethora of UK digital regulations have been implemented - but how do they impact children?

Research outputs

The project comprises two complementary studies:

The impact of regulation on children's digital lives - Phase II (2026)

Press release: New report signals more work needed in child online safety and privacy protections

Phase 2 covers 2024–2026, analysing child safety and privacy changes across 70 platforms (including social media, AI chatbots, and gaming ) against the backdrop of the UK Online Safety Act, the Age-Appropriate Design Code, and the EU Digital Services Act.

Key findings include:

  • The four largest platforms (Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat) have shifted away from protective "by default" design towards end-user tools such as parental controls, a reversal of the trend seen in 2017–2024.
  • Age assurance is now widespread but inconsistently implemented, and largely unaudited.
  • Enforcement by Ofcom, the ICO, and the European Commission is intensifying in 2026, but has yet to drive strategic change.
  • Significant child safety risks persist across many platforms despite existing regulatory measures.
  • The report calls for a fundamental shift towards a product safety model for children's digital experiences — including mandatory pre-launch safety testing, removal of safe harbour protections, expansion of the OSA to cover AI chatbots, and stronger collective redress mechanisms.

Read the report

As part of Phase II, two relevant appendices detail key data on this topic:

Appendix A: Regulatory developments in the UK, EU and internationally

  • Appendix A summarises the regulatory actions of Ofcom, the ICO, the European Commission and international developments in Australia, the United States and Brazil.

Appendix B: Research data and figures on safety and privacy changes made by platforms

  • Appendix B provides further details of the methdology, followed by visualisations of key platform changes by Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok.

Regulation has effective impact in protecting children’s safety and privacy online. There is a shift towards substantive design changes that build in safeguards by default - from private account settings to restrictions in targeted advertising.

Steve Wood

The impact of regulation on children's digital lives (2024)

Key findings include:

  • 128 changes were recorded during the period 2017–24 between Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap. A peak of 42 changes was recorded in 2021, the year the AADC came into effect, and Meta was the most active company – announcing 61 changes.
  • Some of the most important changes recorded included social media accounts defaulted to private settings, changes to recommender systems and restrictions on targeted advertising to children.
  • It is reasonable to conclude that legislation and regulation is driving the companies to make significant numbers of important child privacy and safety changes.
  • The risk that changes to age assurance and recommender systems could impact on the full range of children's rights.
  • Regulations can provide substantive benefits in protecting children online. However, further research is needed to assess the full extent of the benefits. Further assessment is also needed as the DSA and OSA are fully implemented through 2025 and 2026 (see: Phase II results below)

Read the report

No longer need the public wait for businesses to regulate themselves! This innovative report documents the flurry of improvements that tech companies have made to protect children’s safety and privacy.

Prof Sonia Livingstone

Meet the team

This project is lead by Steve Wood, consultant at the Digital Futures for Children centre.

Image credits

Impact of regulation Phase II: Kindel Media via Pexels

Impact of regulation: Enokson via Flickr

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