Privacy and online safety regulations drive social media platform changes

20/05/2024 | LSE

new report published by researchers at the Digital Future for Children centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science reveals that legislation and regulations are behind changes made by four providers of digital platforms and services to protect people's privacy and increase online safety. 

The report identified 128 child safety and privacy changes made by Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snap between 2017 and 2024. The study highlights the influence of regulatory measures such as the Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) and the UK Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) on these changes. Despite positive steps, the report identifies over-reliance on tools like parental controls, which have shown low efficacy. The researchers offer eleven recommendations to enhance child safety legislation, including working collaboratively across to develop industry best practices, regulations outlining what good practice looks like, mandatory access to data for child safety research and transparency around child safety changes.

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Text message, encryption, online safety

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