Every day without online safety reform, more children are exposed to dangers they should never face

The Government has shown they are ready to listen, engage and gather the evidence, but now it's their time to act.

Because every day that passes without meaningful reform of the online world is another day when children are exposed to risks and dangers they should never face.

For too long, tech companies have been allowed to mark their own homework. They have built platforms that have fundamentally changed the way young people engage with the world, yet consistently prioritise profit over protection.

Families have been left to cope with the consequences, from exposure to harmful content and online sexual abuse, to the relentless pull of addictive design features engineered to keep young people online for as long as possible.

Tech companies are failing children, and if they continue to refuse to make fundamental changes, then a social media ban for under‑16s would be better than what we have now.

But in my view, it would still not provide the comprehensive protections we need in a rapidly changing world. It's about time we saw Big Tech taking accountability, because children deserve better than a ban.

At the NSPCC, we know what must happen next.

Firstly, Government must force tech companies to deliver genuinely age‑appropriate experiences for children online by introducing film‑style age ratings based on what a user can see and do on a platform. The public is telling us they support this. Three-quarters of children aged 11–15 and 92% of adults support movie- and game-style age ratings for social media apps.

Likewise, harmful features such as livestreaming and end-to-end encrypted messaging should be switched off for under‑16s, and platforms must use highly effective age assurance to keep underage users off their sites.

Secondly, platforms must also be stopped from using addictive design tricks like endless scrolling and persistent notifications that keep young people online for hours on end.

Finally, illegal and harmful content must be blocked across all online services, including devices, gaming platforms and emerging technologies such as AI, which is rapidly becoming a new frontier for abuse. Safety features that block nude images on children's phones would be a simple but transformative step to help prevent grooming, extortion and online child sexual abuse.

Delivering on these three key actions would make the online world a much safer and healthier place for children. It would also lay firm foundations for how we protect our young people on other established and emerging technologies and ensure they have positive experiences when they go online.

This is a moment of reckoning. We can choose to be the generation that finally puts children's safety ahead of corporate profit, or the one that looks away as tech companies treat young people as data points in their business models.

The time for delay is over. Now is the moment to act.

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Chris Sherwood is chief executive of the NSPCC, joining the children's charity at the start of 2025. He previously served as Chief Executive of the RSPCA, the world's oldest and largest animal protection charity.

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