Protective defaults for social media platforms
UK — Ofcom · 2026-07-13 · UK · verified record
Themes: Child safety & minors
Ecosystems: UK Online Safety Act
Our new randomised controlled trial (RCT) explored how children (13 – 15 year olds, and 16 – 17 year olds) and adults react to being defaulted into safe-by-design social media profile settings. We find strong support for these settings, and high rates of retention across all ages. Past RCTs by Ofcom’s Behavioural Insights Hub have found encouraging evidence that default settings affect users’ online choices. For example, our past trials have shown: - When adults are defaulted into being able to see "All content types" (which includes potentially harmful content) on a mock video sharing platfor
Our new randomised controlled trial (RCT) explored how children (13 – 15 year olds, and 16 – 17 year olds) and adults react to being defaulted into safe-by-design social media profile settings. We find strong support for these settings, and high rates of retention across all ages. Past RCTs by Ofcom’s Behavioural Insights Hub have found encouraging evidence that default settings affect users’ online choices. For example, our past trials have shown: - When adults are defaulted into being able to see "All content types" (which includes potentially harmful content) on a mock video sharing platfor…
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