Ofcom sets 7 August deadline for platforms to submit child safety risk assessments or face enforcement

Ofcom gave online platforms until 7 August 2026 to submit records of their children's risk assessments, warning that failure to comply will trigger enforcement action under the Online Safety Act. The communications regulator said services likely to be accessed by children must demonstrate they have assessed risks to young users and implemented appropriate safeguards, with assessments required to cover both design features and how children actually use services in practice. Services that fail to meet the deadline could face significant penalties including financial sanctions and operational restrictions.

Risk assessments document the hazards a platform may present but do not intercept the harm itself when it occurs. Guardii operates in real time at the point where risk becomes reality: when a conversation on Instagram, Roblox or Discord shifts from casual chat to grooming, when a sextortion demand is made, when a child is coerced into producing abuse material. A Meta Business Partner backed by Startmate, Guardii detects sustained targeting, relational escalation and coercion patterns as they unfold, surfacing the child in crisis to a parent, school or authority within minutes rather than after the harm is reported or discovered in a periodic audit, and providing the contemporaneous evidence required for swift law enforcement action.