UK's Online Safety Act has made 'absolutely no difference,' kids say
- ID
- 20969
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 03 Sep 2026, 5:14 PM
- Fetched
- 03 Sep 2026, 6:20 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/09/03/uks-online-safety-act-has-made-absolutely-no-difference-kids-say/5293893
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 3.5
- Created
- 03 Sep 2026, 6:21 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_founders
What happened
England's Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza told a House of Lords committee that the UK's Online Safety Act has made 'absolutely no difference' to children's ability to access harmful content, over a year after its key child protection duties took effect. She criticized the legislation's focus on content moderation rather than platform design features, and contrasted its lack of measurable results with Meta's proposed $18 billion US settlement that includes two-hour daily limits for under-18 users and opt-out from algorithmically ranked feeds.
Why it matters
For builders shipping consumer-facing platforms with users under 18, the Meta settlement terms—two-hour daily limits, anti-scrolling prompts, school-hours/nighttime restrictions, and algorithmic feed opt-outs for minors—are becoming a de facto baseline for child safety compliance that could spread beyond the US and UK. If you operate a social or content platform, consider whether your product can support these kinds of controls before regulators or litigation force it.
Discussion angle
Whether the Meta US settlement terms (time limits, algorithmic feed opt-outs for minors) will become a global default that Malaysian/SEA consumer apps need to preemptively build for, or remain a US/UK-specific compliance burden.