Children's online safety: maintaining focus on advertising harms as the landscape evolves

The Government's announcement that it intends to prevent social media companies from offering services to under-16s marks a significant development in the UK's approach to children's online safety. While the details of the proposed measures remain to be worked through, and therefore the full implications for regulators including the ASA are not yet clear, the direction of travel is unmistakable: protecting children online is a national priority.

The Government's consultation considered a broad range of harms experienced by children online, including bullying, adult stranger abuse, exposure to harmful content and concerns about addictive design features. These issues extend well beyond advertising and have clearly carried significant weight in the Government's thinking.

However, the consultation also asked whether children and families need additional help with spotting adverts, sponsored posts and AI-generated content. This remains an important consideration. For many years, the ASA has worked collaboratively with social media platforms to require and support advertisers, agencies and influencers to ensure advertising is clearly disclosed. The principle is simple but important: children and adults should be able to recognise advertising as advertising and understand when they are being sold to.

Alongside this work, the ASA has invested heavily in technology-led research to protect children from advertising-related harms online. Through our Tech for Good projects, we have worked with platforms and industry to improve the targeting of age-restricted advertising, helping ensure that ads for products such as alcohol, gambling and foods high in fat, salt or sugar are directed away from child audiences and towards appropriate adult audiences.

We have also moved quickly to address growing questions about AI-generated content in advertising. Through published rulings, guidance and thought leadership, we have clarified that while there is no blanket requirement to disclose AI use, disclosure may be necessary where its omission could mislead consumers, including in relation to AI-generated influencers, deepfakes or manipulated content. We also remain closely engaged with UK and international policy debates on AI and advertising, ensuring our regulatory approach evolves alongside the technology and continues to command public confidence.

As the Government develops and implements its proposals, the ASA will continue to apply and enforce the advertising rules that protect children online. Through our Intermediary and Platform Principles, we will continue working with social media companies and other online intermediaries to support advertisers' compliance with the Advertising Codes and strengthen accountability. And as children's online behaviours evolve in response to Government's new policy, we will remain alert to where children spend their time. As younger users migrate to apps, websites or online environments beyond the scope of the new restrictions, our commitment will remain unchanged: to protect children from advertising-related harms wherever they encounter advertising online.

Protecting children online requires coordinated action across government, regulators, platforms and industry. The ASA looks forward to continuing its role in that shared endeavour.

Shahriar Coupal is responsible for ensuring the proper running of the CAP and BCAP Committees and directing the self-regulatory system's monitoring, compliance, regulatory policy and copy advice functions.

Shahriar played a central role co-ordinating the first major review of the UK Advertising Codes and subsequent public consultation and is also a Director of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). He joined the ASA from Ofcom in 2005 when the ASA took on responsibility for regulating broadcast advertising. Read more