Schools are bearing the practical fallout of the Online Safety Act

The useful part

Act, it was clear that technology companies would be made to take on greater responsibility for protecting children and young people online. As regulators continue to focus on platforms, schools are rapidly becoming the institutions expected to manage the consequences when those platforms fail. They did not design TikTok's recommendation algorithms, nor do they control Instagram's engagement systems.

How it works

• Internal Meta research, first reported in 2021, revealed concerns about Instagram's effects on some teenage users.
• In August, the court imposed a further $567 million judgment and ordered significant changes to Meta's protections for young users, bringing its total financial exposure in the case to $942 million.
• Designated safeguarding leads are expected to take responsibility for online safety, including filtering and monitoring systems.
• The problem, however, is that responsibility and control remain badly misaligned.
• For years, Britain has debated how best to regulate technology companies.

What to take from it

They are by no means the architects of the attention economy, and yet when a child falls victim to the sins of the online world, it is often the school that must respond first. Questions over big tech still remain, but in focusing so much attention on the culprits, far less attention has been paid to the institutions that are expected to deal with the fallout. In economic terms, the institutions creating risk and the institutions managing its consequences are often not the same.

Example or evidence

• In the United States, for instance, thousands of lawsuits have been brought against major social media companies, alleging harm caused to children and adolescents.
• In March 2026, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties after finding that it had violated state consumer-protection law.
• Whatever the ultimate outcome of these legal battles, they point to a much broader shift.
• The debate is now moving beyond whether harms exist and towards the question of who is responsible.

Details worth keeping

Does social media make things better or worse? A noble goal, yes, although a strange consequence is now emerging. That argument can obscure a far more uncomfortable reality.

Related coverage

• Huffingtonpost: In three and a half decades working in policing, I have seen the landscape of child abuse change many times.
• Siliconrepublic: Lives report examines two national surveys – one taking into account the experiences and views of children, the other exploring the sentiment held by parents and caregivers.
• Theregister: Children's Commissioner also furious with Ofcom over a string of failures