Social media apps said to do ‘much, much more’ on age verification.

Ofcom has warned social media companies that they will face penalties if they fail to take significant extra steps to tackle the problem of children pretending to be adults online.

A new survey by the UK’s media regulator found that 22 per cent of eight- to 17-year-olds lie about being 18 or older on social media apps.

This is despite the Online Safety Act (OSA) requiring platforms to beef up age verification, an obligation that will come into force in 2025.

Ofcom told the BBC its “alarming” findings showed tech firms had more to do to meet the new legal standard – and said they would face enforcement if they failed to do so. will face action.

It states that children’s risk of exposure to harmful content increases as they mature.

“Platforms need to do a lot more to know the age of their children online,” Ian McRae, director of market intelligence at Ofcom, told the BBC.

He added that 2025 was a “huge year” in which there should be a “real step change in online security”.

He said Ofcom would “take action” if companies did not comply with the OSA, pointing out that the legislation allows companies to be fined 10% of their global revenue.

A number of tech firms have recently announced initiatives to make social media safer for young people, e.g Instagram is launching “teen accounts.”

However, when BBC News spoke to a group of young people at the Russell Academy in Glasgow, they all said they used adult ages for their social media accounts.

“It’s so easy to lie about your age,” said 15-year-old Miley.

“I put in my actual birthday – like the day and month – but when it’s the year, I’ll just go back ten years,” she added.

“There is no verification, they don’t ask for ID, they don’t ask for anything,” added another student, Hania, also 15.

BBC News also went unchallenged when it set up accounts on several major platforms using newly created email addresses.

A user over the age of 18 was registered without any proof requested.

Ofcom says this will have to change in the coming months.

“Self-declaration of a child’s age is clearly completely inadequate,” Mr McRae said.

There is deep public concern about children’s exposure to harmful content online, fueled in part by the high-profile deaths of teenagers Molly Russell and Briana Ghee.

It led the previous government to pass the OSA which will require social media platforms from July 2025 to provide what Ofcom calls “highly effective age assurance”.

He did not specify what technology should be used to strengthen the verification process, but said he was testing several systems in his labs and would have “more to say” in the new year. will

The BBC contacted the most popular platforms for children and young people in the UK for their reactions.

“Every day we remove thousands of suspiciously underage accounts,” TikTok said in a statement.

“We are exploring how new machine learning technology can enhance these efforts and are co-leading an initiative to develop industry-specific age assurance methods that prioritize safety. give and respect the rights of the youth,” he added.

Snapchat and Meta – the owner of WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook – both declined to comment.

X, formerly Twitter, did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

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