The UK’s Online Safety Act has been in force for four months. Since 17 January, the largest platforms have had to keep children off pornography and content promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, verify users’ ages, and change their algorithms so harmful content isn’t recommended to under-18s. Non-compliance carries fines of up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue.
The first proper research on whether it’s working dropped on 1 May. The findings: the law is doing some of what it was supposed to, none of what it wasn’t, and the things parents are most worried about aren’t in the Act yet. That last bit is what the consultation closing on 26 May is set up to address.
What the research found
Internet Matters surveyed parents and children and ran seven focus groups in February. Two thirds of parents and children say they are seeing more safety features on the apps they use. Just over half of children have been asked to verify their age recently. Around 54% of children say the content they see online is now more child-friendly.
The verification side is the awkward bit. Nearly half of children think age checks are easy to bypass. A third say they have done it. In one focus group, a mother described catching her son using an eyebrow pencil to draw a moustache on his face; the platform’s age check estimated him at 15. A quarter of parents say they have allowed their child to bypass age checks.
What the research found about what parents actually want
Internet Matters asked parents and children what they were most worried about. The two things that came up most often were not in the Act at all: the amount of time children spend online, and the rise of AI-generated content that children can’t tell apart from real images and videos.
They are also the same problems regulators around the world have been moving towards in the last six months. Australia amended its under-16 ban in March to put the algorithm itself in scope. The New Mexico court case currently underway is asking a judge to order Meta to remove infinite scroll and push notifications for children. The European Parliament voted in November 2025 to recommend bans on infinite scroll, autoplay and the commercial exploitation of minors.
The Online Safety Act was drafted before any of that. The next round of regulation needs to target the algorithmic features that keep children watching, and the AI tools now in every teenager’s pocket. That is what the UK government has put on the table.
What this means for you right now
Three things.
First, do not assume age checks are protecting your child today. Check the date of birth on every account your child has. On Instagram: Settings → Account → Personal information → Date of birth. On TikTok: Profile → menu → Settings and privacy → Account → Birthday. If the date is wrong, the teen account protections that should be active are not.
Second, the algorithmic features the next round of regulation is targeting are also features you can switch off at home. Push notifications, Shorts feeds, infinite scroll: most platforms now let parents turn these off on teen accounts. The regulators are targeting the same features. You don’t have to wait for them.
Third, the consultation closes on 26 May. If you have a view on whether the rules should go further, on the algorithm, on AI chatbots, on the digital age of consent, submit it before the deadline. Search “Growing Up in the Online World consultation” to find the response form.
Sources: Internet Matters — The Online Safety Act: Are children safer online?, 1 May 2026 UK Government — Growing Up in the Online World consultation House of Commons Library — Proposals to ban social media for children, May 2026 eSafety Commissioner — Australia’s amended social media rules, March 2026
