Functionalities Linked to Exposure of Harmful Content (11-17years old)

This chart from the Ofcom Children’s Online Safety Tracker 2025 identifies the technical features through which children in the UK (aged 11–17) encounter harmful content. It compares data from before and after the implementation of the UK Online Safety Act and Ofcom’s Children’s Codes. Despite new 'Safety-by-Design' mandates specifically targeting the re-engineering of algorithmic feeds, the data reveal that scrolling on personalised feeds (35%) remains the primary functionality through which young people are exposed to digital harm. A significant trend emerges in the shift towards 'secondary' social spaces. While exposure via feeds remained relatively stable, exposure through platform comments increased significantly, rising from 14% to 21%. This suggests that, although regulators have focused heavily on the 'push' of recommender systems, the 'human layer' of peer-to-peer interaction in comments has become a growing risk vector. Conversely, the data shows a statistically significant decrease in intentional search behaviour, which fell to just 1%, suggesting that new safety duties have been successful in making harmful content harder to find through search queries.