With children spending more time online than ever before, ensuring that the digital environment is safe and age-appropriate is a growing priority. Whether you’re a digital service provider, educator, or parent, protecting children from harmful or unsuitable content is crucial.

This guide outlines key responsibilities for businesses and online platforms, additional considerations for younger children, and the role schools must play in promoting online safety.

Why Age-Appropriate Content Matters

According to Ofcom, 81% of children aged 12 to 15 reported a potentially harmful online experience in 2020, and 30% had seen something worrying or upsetting. Such exposure can negatively affect a child’s emotional development, wellbeing, and sense of security.

Ensuring content is appropriate for the child’s age not only helps avoid these issues but also encourages a healthy, informative, and positive online experience.

What Online Services and Businesses Should Do

If your service is used by children, you must take proactive steps to ensure it is designed with safety in mind:

  • Set and Enforce Clear Content Rules: Define acceptable content and share this clearly with users.
  • Use Age Assurance Tools: Prevent access to unsuitable material by verifying users’ ages where necessary.
  • Enable Easy Reporting: Make it simple for children to report harmful content, with clear follow-up on actions taken.
  • Default Child Safety Settings: Apply stricter privacy and safety settings for under-18s by default.
  • Moderate Content Regularly: Use automated tools and human review to detect and remove inappropriate material.
  • Regulate Advertising: Ensure all ads comply with child-specific advertising rules under the UK Advertising Code.
  • Use Trusted Age Ratings: Adopt BBFC or PEGI ratings to guide parents and children in selecting suitable content.

Extra Steps for Services Used by Under-13s

Services catering to younger children should take additional precautions:

  • Use Simple Language: All instructions and safety information should be written in child-friendly terms.
  • Walled Garden Approach: Restrict third-party content and limit user-generated material unless it’s pre-moderated.
  • Multi-Layered Moderation: Apply pre-, post-, and reactive moderation methods using both technology and human review.
  • Parental Involvement: Verify children’s ages through parents and provide regular updates on changes to your service.

How to Go Above and Beyond

  • Customise by Age and Vulnerability: Design features based on a child’s stage of development or particular needs.
  • Educate and Empower Children: Offer tools and guidance to help children understand how to use platforms safely.
  • Interactive Safety Tools: Create quizzes, characters, or pop-up messages to encourage safer behaviour and awareness of risks.

The Role of Schools and Colleges in Online Safety

Schools and colleges also have a legal and moral duty to protect children in the digital space. According to statutory guidance such as Keeping Children Safe in Education, they must have:

  • Filtering Systems: To block access to harmful, illegal, or inappropriate content.
  • Monitoring Systems: To track user activity and detect potential dangers such as cyberbullying or harmful behaviour.
  • Defined Responsibilities: Headteachers, safeguarding leads, and IT staff must work together to implement and review safety measures.

In addition to filtering harmful content, schools must ensure that children understand how to navigate the online world responsibly. This includes learning about reporting tools, spotting misleading content, and managing privacy settings.

Why This Matters

Failing to safeguard children online may soon have serious legal consequences. Under the upcoming Online Safety Act, Ofcom will have the authority to issue fines of up to £18 million or 10% of a company’s global turnover for non-compliance. This includes failures to protect children from both illegal content and material that is legal but harmful.

Extra Wellbeing Support: Keep Your Home Safe and Warm Too

While it’s vital to protect your children online, it’s also important to make sure your home is safe, warm, and affordable, especially during colder months.

If you’re on a low income or receive certain benefits, you may be eligible for free or subsidised home energy improvements through government-backed schemes such as:

These programmes can help reduce your energy bills, improve insulation and heating, and make your home more comfortable for the whole family.

Check your eligibility today, it only takes a few minutes and could make a real difference to your household budget and wellbeing.