Are children safer online?
Responding to the Online Safety Act
Explore this summary for parents on findings from our Online Safety Act report.
See what parents and children tell us what’s improving and where protections are falling short before finding practical tips to keep kids safe now.
On this page
- Are children safer online since the Online Safety Act came into force?
- Where are protections falling short?
- What parents can do
- Read the infographic
- Supporting resources
Are children safer online since the Online Safety Act came into force?
The Online Safety Act has introduced new protections designed to help keep children safer online, including age checks, reporting tools and stronger platform responsibilities. But are families actually seeing a difference?
Our 2026 research explores what has changed for children and families since the new rules came into force. While some parents and children feel the online world is becoming safer, many say harmful content, weak age checks and addictive platform features are still affecting children’s experiences online.
Where are protections falling short?
Many families believe that age checks are too easy to bypass.
- 46% of children think that age checks are easy to bypass.
- A third (32%) of children have bypassed age checks by using methods like entering a fake birthday or even drawing on facial hair.
- A quarter (26%) of parents have allowed their child to bypass age checks.
Children are still encountering harmful content online.
- 49% of children say they have experienced harm online in the past month.
- This includes seeing violent content (12%), content that promotes unrealistic body types (11%) and hateful content (including racial or homophobic content) (10%).
Children are struggling to control their screen time.
- 46% of children reported they keep playing the same games or watching the same TV shows or films even when not enjoying them.
- 45% admit to stopping playing sport or doing exercise because they want to play video games, watch TV or be on social media.
- 59% of children say they stay up late on their devices.
AI is creating new risks online.
- 63% of children are worried about the growth of fake news and AI-generated content.
- Over a quarter (27%) of children have seen a fake or AI generated news story and believed it.
What parents can do
There are steps that parents can take today to address the areas where protections fall short.
Check
Review the age settings, privacy tools and parental controls on your child’s accounts and devices to help filter harmful content and restrict access to inappropriate sites.
Talk
Have regular conversations about what your child sees and does online, similar to how you would ask about their offline life. This can give you an insight into how the digital world is affecting them and allows you to react if an issue arises.
Build habits
Build small, healthy digital habits that support safer digital experiences. These can include agreeing on screen time breaks around dinner and bedtime, or charging devices outside of bedrooms.
Read the infographic
Supporting resources
Explore the research further or find helpful resources that can help keep your child safer online.
The Online Safety Act 2026 report
Step-by-step parental controls guides
Guide to having conversations
Advice by age
Close video
Close video
Close video
Close video