UK Children's Online Safety: What Is Law Today — and What Changes Next?

The UK is preparing major new restrictions on children’s social-media use, but several widely reported measures are not yet in force. Here is what parents, schools and safeguarding professionals need to know now.

The essential distinction: the Online Safety Act already places child-safety duties on regulated platforms. The proposed under-16 social-media restrictions and additional protections for 16- and 17-year-olds are planned measures that still require detailed regulations.

What the law already requires

The Online Safety Act 2023 is already part of UK law. Since 25 July 2025, regulated platforms have had legal duties to protect children from specified harmful and age-inappropriate content.

These duties include using highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing pornography and content encouraging suicide, self-harm or eating disorders. Platforms must also address risks including bullying, hateful material and content encouraging dangerous activities.

Services must provide accessible ways for children and parents to report problems. Ofcom regulates these duties and can investigate non-compliance, impose significant penalties and, in the most serious cases, seek to block services.

Separate data-protection requirements also matter. The ICO’s Children’s Code expects online services likely to be accessed by children to use protections such as high privacy by default, switching off non-essential location tracking and avoiding prompts that encourage children to weaken privacy settings.

These rules place responsibility on platforms. They do not remove the need for supportive conversations, proportionate supervision and clear reporting routes at home and in education.

What the government plans to introduce

The government’s July 2026 response sets out a wider programme that includes:

• Preventing covered social-media services from offering their services to under-16s.
• More rigorous age checks.
• Default overnight access restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds.
• Restrictions on infinite scrolling and other features designed to prolong use.
• Restrictions on higher-risk functions, including contact from strangers and livestreaming.
• Additional controls around sexualised AI chatbots and sexually explicit role-play features.
• Measures intended to detect and reduce attempts to circumvent age restrictions.
• More guidance for families and stronger media-literacy support.

The government says it intends to place the first regulations before Parliament by the end of 2026, with the first measures expected to take effect in early 2027. Until those regulations are approved and commenced, these points should be described as planned measures—not current legal prohibitions.

A timely deadline for schools in England

Education settings in England must continue using Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 until 31 August 2026. The 2026 edition comes into force on 1 September 2026.

The updated guidance continues to treat online safety as a connected part of safeguarding rather than an isolated technology issue. Schools should ensure their child-protection policies cover online safety, appropriate filtering and monitoring, staff responsibilities, parental engagement and child-friendly reporting arrangements.

The guidance applies to England. Schools and safeguarding organisations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should follow the relevant guidance and reporting structures for their nation.

What parents and carers can do now

Parents do not need to wait for new legislation before strengthening a child’s online environment.

Start with calm, regular conversations. Ask which apps, games and group chats your child enjoys, who can contact them and what they would do if something made them uncomfortable. A child who fears losing their device or being blamed may be less likely to report a problem.

Review privacy and safety settings together. Check location sharing, public profiles, direct messages, livestreaming permissions, friend or follower lists and whether a platform uses personalised recommendations.

Make clear that pressure, threats, requests for secrecy, unwanted sexual contact and demands for images or money are never the child’s fault. Preserve evidence where it is safe to do so, avoid confronting a suspected offender directly and follow the appropriate safeguarding or police reporting route.

What schools and organisations should do now

1. Review policies against the risks children actually encounter—not only the platforms named in older documents.
2. Confirm that every child knows how to report an online concern confidentially.
3. Ensure staff recognise online grooming, exploitation, coercion, financial scams and AI-generated abusive material as safeguarding matters.
4. Test filtering and monitoring arrangements without treating technology as a substitute for professional judgement.
5. Explain escalation routes clearly, including the role of the designated safeguarding lead.
6. Prepare England-based education settings for the KCSIE change on 1 September 2026.
7. Communicate with families in plain language and avoid assuming that every parent has the same level of digital confidence.

What to do now

The direction of UK policy is clear: platforms will face increasing responsibility for designing safer experiences for children. Yet good safeguarding will continue to depend on trusted relationships, early reporting and adults responding calmly when a child asks for help.

Sources

• UK Government: Growing up in the online world—consultation outcome
• UK Government: July 2026 response
• UK Government: Online Safety Act collection
• Ofcom statement on the proposed restrictions
• ICO: Children’s Code and children’s online privacy
• Department for Education: Keeping Children Safe in Education

This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice. Organisations should obtain appropriate advice about duties applying to their activities and location.