The Battle for Online Child Safety: Who’s Really Responsible?

In today’s digital age, online child safety is a growing concern for parents, educators, and policymakers alike. With the vast majority of children spending a significant portion of their day online, ensuring that they remain protected from harmful content, predators, and exploitation has never been more crucial. However, the question arises: who is responsible for safeguarding children in the digital space? Should it be solely the responsibility of parents, or should tech companies be held accountable for their platforms’ role in exposing children to online dangers?

As digital environments become more immersive and engaging, the conversation around parental controls and online safety has become more complex. Increasingly, the burden of responsibility for protecting kids online seems to be shifting to parents, but is this truly fair? Shouldn’t tech companies, who profit from creating platforms designed to keep children engaged, shoulder more of the responsibility for safety?

Why Parental Controls Are Not Enough for Online Child Safety

The term “parental controls” often implies that parents are solely responsible for protecting their children in the digital world. While it is undeniably important for parents to guide and supervise their children’s online activity, placing the responsibility solely on parents is both unrealistic and unfair. In reality, tech companies design platforms that are intentionally addictive, encouraging prolonged use and creating an environment where children are exposed to risks.

Here’s how the current system fails to protect children:

• Addictive Design: Social media platforms, video games, and other digital spaces are designed to captivate users, keeping children online for longer periods. Features like infinite scrolling, push notifications, and algorithm-driven content recommendations work to keep children engaged, sometimes at the expense of their well-being. Platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have been accused of creating environments that prioritize engagement over safety, often at the expense of children’s mental health.
• Confusing Safety Settings: Many platforms bury privacy and safety settings deep within their menus, making it incredibly difficult for parents to properly configure these controls. Even when settings are available, they are often unclear and not user-friendly, leaving parents frustrated and unable to effectively manage their children’s online safety.
• Blaming Parents: The onus often falls on parents to monitor their children’s digital lives. While it is important for parents to play an active role, tech companies should not be allowed to evade responsibility. Instead of making it easier for parents to enforce safety, tech companies tend to pass the buck, leaving parents to fight a losing battle against sophisticated digital systems designed to keep children hooked.

The reality is, tech companies need to do more to ensure their platforms are safe by default, without parents needing to step in at every turn.

How to Improve Online Child Safety Through Stronger Regulations

The online safety landscape must evolve to prioritize children’s well-being and accountability for tech companies. Here’s how we can ensure that children are better protected online:

1. Safety Should Be the Default: Safety features and protections should not be optional or hidden behind confusing menus. Platforms should make it the default for children to have their privacy protected and be shielded from harmful content.
2. Age Verification and Safeguards: Stronger age verification systems need to be implemented to ensure that children cannot easily bypass safeguards. Age-assurance systems should be more robust, moving beyond self-declaration of age, and require proper identity verification if necessary.
3. Transparency and Accountability: Tech companies need to be more transparent about how they protect children online. They should provide clear, accessible information about the steps they take to protect users, particularly minors, from harmful content, harassment, and exploitation.
4. Collaboration with Parents: Rather than placing the full responsibility on parents, tech companies should collaborate with them to create a safer online environment. Parents should have access to simple and effective tools to manage their children’s digital experiences without feeling overwhelmed.

Why Parental Controls Are Not Enough for Online Child Safety?

A recent survey from Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, shed light on a disturbing trend: 22% of children aged 8 to 17 admitted to lying about their age on social media platforms, claiming to be 18 or older. This is a clear indication of the inadequacy of current age verification systems.

Despite the Online Safety Act (OSA), which comes into effect in 2025, tech companies are still falling short when it comes to enforcing proper age verification. Ofcom’s report highlighted the risks associated with children impersonating adults, including exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, and predatory behaviour.

• Ian McCrae, Director of Market Intelligence at Ofcom, emphasised that the current approach to age verification is insufficient. He noted that platforms need to do much more to ensure they know the real age of their users to protect children from exposure to inappropriate material.
• Children’s Access to Harmful Content: The ability to easily bypass age restrictions on platforms increases the likelihood that children will encounter inappropriate content, including self-harm material, violence, and adult-themed content. In fact, high-profile tragedies like the deaths of Molly Russell and Brianna Ghey have intensified the public’s concern about online safety and the need for better safeguards.

How Tech Companies Impact Online Child Safety?

The issue of children lying about their age online is more than just a minor oversight—it’s a critical flaw in how tech companies approach age safety. Despite the existence of age restrictions on many platforms, the ease with which children can bypass these restrictions shows that platforms are not doing enough to protect their users.

The Online Safety Act, which will require platforms to implement more stringent age-assurance measures, is a step in the right direction. However, these changes will not come into effect until 2025, and it remains to be seen whether companies will comply with the law in a meaningful way.

Andy Burrows from the Molly Rose Foundation has called attention to the failure of tech companies to enforce their own policies, stating that many children remain unprotected from harmful content because of weak age verification systems.

Accountability in the Digital Age

In an ideal world, protecting children online should be a shared responsibility between parents, tech companies, and regulators. While parents will always play a vital role in guiding their children’s online experience, tech companies must take responsibility for creating safe, transparent, and accountable platforms.

As we move toward the implementation of the Online Safety Act in 2025, it’s time for tech companies to step up and ensure they are doing everything they can to protect children online. The burden should not fall solely on parents, but rather on the entire digital ecosystem that profits from keeping children online.

By implementing stronger age verification systems, making safety a default setting, and being transparent about their actions, tech companies can create a safer digital space for children—without putting the weight of responsibility on parents alone.

Share this article with friends, family, and fellow parents to raise awareness about the importance of responsible tech use and the need for stronger protections.

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