‘Underwhelmed’: Ofcom admits online safety impact falling short as full roll-out slips to 2027 September 15, 2026 Britain’s online safety watchdog has admitted its flagship rules have so far had an “underwhelming” impact on children’s safety, as it revealed the Online Safety Act will not be fully operational until the middle of 2027 and warned the government’s incoming social media ban could stretch its resources. Ofcom officials faced a grilling from peers [...]
I built my career on social media as a teen. I still think banning under-16s is right August 19, 2026 George Bacon arguably makes a living from young people scrolling. But he says a social media ban for under-16s is logical and responsible.
ChatGPT to follow Claude’s watermark pledge – but Grok to swerve it August 12, 2026 Elon Musk’s Grok is poised to swerve rivals’ plans to ‘watermark’ all artificially-generated content, City AM understands, after refusing to sign up to a European push forcing firms to make AI content traceable. xAI was the only major large language model maker to shun a European Union-led move to tighten AI transparency rules that means [...]
Competition watchdog clears Paramount Warner Bros acquisition August 6, 2026 The UK competition watchdog has cleared the merger of Hollywood heavyweights Paramount and Warner Bros after concluding it does not pose an issue to competitiveness in the UK. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed it would not investigate the matter further on Wednesday, as it did not “give rise to a realistic prospect of [...]
‘Scale is survival’: UK broadcasters race to merge as streaming giants squeeze revenues July 29, 2026 British broadcasters are turning to mergers as television revenues come under pressure from streaming services, YouTube and online ads, according to Ofcom. The media regulator’s annual Media Nations report found commercial broadcaster revenues fell from £4.98bn to £4.83bn in 2025, despite the wider TV and online video market growing seven per cent to £18.4bn. Growth [...]
BT Openreach told to pull ‘unfair’ broadband discount July 28, 2026 Ofcom has moved to block a heavily discounted Openreach broadband offer after warning it could squeeze rival fibre networks out of the market, in the regulator’s first attempt to stop a commercial deal from BT’s network arm. The telecoms watchdog said Openreach’s proposed discount for internet providers signing up new full-fibre customers was “not fair [...]
Sky and ITV mount defence of £1.6bn merger as regulators probe deal July 24, 2026 Sky and ITV will argue their proposed £1.6bn merger controls only around a fifth of Britain’s advertising market as they seek to convince competition regulators to approve one of the biggest media deals in decades, City AM understands. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday invited comments on Sky’s planned acquisition of ITV’s Media [...]
Tiktok pledges three-stage age checks as it pilots alcohol sales July 22, 2026 Tiktok will strictly enforce age checks to block under-18s from buying or even viewing alcohol on Tiktok Shop, City AM understands, as it expands into one of retail’s most tightly regulated categories. The social media giant said its ecommerce platform is strictly for adults and that alcohol sales are being piloted only with a small [...]
Tiktok ‘confident’ ahead of Ofcom child safety probe July 16, 2026 Tiktok has insisted it is “confident” it complies with the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) after Ofcom launched an investigation into whether the platform is doing enough to stop children accessing harmful content. The watchdog is looking into whether Tiktok’s age verifictions meet the legal requirement to be “highly effective” at identifying child users after [...]
Government accelerates social media crackdown with midnight curfews July 14, 2026 Teenagers will face a default midnight social media curfew and stripped-back social media feeds under the government’s latest crackdown on addictive online features – but they will be able to switch the restrictions off themselves. Tech secretary Liz Kendall has announced social media platforms will disable auto-play and infinite scroll-style recommendations and restrict overnight access [...]