Dating and social apps face tough new Ofcom safety rules

Ofcom clamps down on dating, messaging and social media platforms, with tougher safety rules.

The regulator says the industry has failed to get a grip on harms that hit women and vulnerable users and is now spelling out what compliance must look like.

Cyberflashing is now offence under the Online Safety Act. Ofcom says women are nearly three times more likely than men to be hit with unsolicited sexual images, with 36 per cent of women under 40 reporting they’ve received one from someone who wasn’t their partner. Ofcom says: platforms must stop this at source with trained moderation teams, rapid takedown systems, and robust user level blocking tools.

Ofcom is extending existing suicide related protections and platforms must stress test algorithms to ensure design changes don’t push harmful content into recommendation feeds, surface crisis prevention information when users search for self harm terms, and strip out predictive search suggestions that could steer users towards illegal material. Users must also be able to disable comments.

Ofcom’s guidance makes clear that platforms must understand how these child grooming groups operate and shut down the pathways they exploit.

Services with direct messaging and a grooming risk will be expected to enforce safety defaults so children can only be contacted by people they already know. Ofcom is considering broader proactive detection requirements for suicide and self harm content, with decisions due by autumn.

The strengthened codes will take effect once they clear the parliamentary process