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Young teenagers on TikTok can easily access hardcore porn content, a new study has found.

By creating fake accounts for 13-year-olds, researchers at the non-governmental organization Global Witness highly sexualized search terms. Despite setting the app to "restrictive mode," the researchers were able to click through to videos showing everything from women flashing to penetrative sex.

Most of these videos had been created in such a way that they were designed to evade discovery, and TikTok has moved swiftly to take them down.

But the fact that they were easy to find to the UK . The act, which came into force over the summer, requires tech companies to prevent children from being able to access pornography and other harmful content.

There have that Meta's efforts to make Instagram safer for young people are similarly ineffective.

There are also a surge in VPN downloads and traffic to pirate sites by users aiming to get around the restrictions in the act. Some are now , though .

It would be easy for parents reading these reports to conclude that there is nothing that can be done to make the internet safe for their children. Many will increasingly be tempted to ban access outright rather than try to navigate the risks in a more measured way.

Certainly, the act was introduced for good reason. , one in 12 children were being exposed to online sexual exploitation or abuse. that surveyed more than 6,000 children also found that 45% reported they had seen violent content and 49% had encountered cyberbullying.

Yet there is a danger in downplaying progress. , most of the top 100 adult sites have introduced age checks or blocked UK access—and so have sites that allow pornographic content, such as X and Reddit.

It wouldn't be the first time that media coverage has over-focused on the online risks to children. Take Roblox, for instance. Launched in 2006, it's a "virtual universe" that allows users to create their own content. it has over 85 million daily active users, of which 39% are below the age of 13.

The site has come in for heavy criticism for by rewarding creators for attracting high engagement from other users, while to prevent violations of the rules.

This has exposed children to undesirable things such as Nazi roleplaying games and . One much-quoted even declared it an "X-rated pedophile hellscape."

True enough, children can potentially be exposed to harmful content on the platform—as with any platform of user-generated content. But a pedophile hellscape? It's worth reflecting that Roblox is by researchers for its ability to help young people learn and explore their identities in more wholesome ways ( for children a few months ago).

To stress, there are online risks parents need to contend with, but the way these risks are reported does not help. TikTok, for instance, has been in trouble over its content before. In 2022, concluded that children can be exposed to harmful content every 39 seconds—with one newspaper turning this into a headline about ."

Given that some parents already , this kind of sensationalist language doesn't help. This points to the "joy, connection and creativity" that children also experience on the platform.

We've been here before

In truth, we've been hearing about the technological threat to children for a very long time. The , argued that radio presented a new insidious threat as it encroached into the family home and children's bedrooms: "No locks would keep this intruder out, nor can parents shift their children away from it."

A 1941 study from San Francisco, , called the technology a "habit-forming practice very difficult to overcome, no matter how the aftereffects are dreaded."

A few years later, television had become the focus of parental fears. According to the : "Nobody can afford to ignore the dangers of corruption by television through violence or through triviality, especially the young."

Soon came the , which introduced the 9pm watershed. It prevented broadcasters from showing programs unsuitable for children before that time, which seems quaint next to today's concerns.

The clear pattern is that one generation's moral panic becomes a source of amusement to the next one as they focus on a new threat. Time and again, the coverage is so distorted and inflamed that it . This makes managing the actual risks much more difficult.

The negotiated alternative

The reality is that restrictive approaches by parents can be counterproductive, especially as they may . Children's instincts, , are to talk about potentially harmful material with their parents, but they're less likely to do so if parents take a hard line since it makes them fear they'll be judged. In other words, they've become more likely to consume harmful content as a result.

The alternative is for parents to adopt a strategy of negotiated decision-making with their children. Instead of viewing online material as alien or inherently negative, it becomes proactively integrated into family life. One as "living out family values through technology." It becomes about accepting risk with a view to building children's resilience.

Unfortunately this sits uncomfortably with the current rhetoric around the internet, since it's recommending moderated, negotiated exposure to something "thermonuclear." Compounding this is the abundance of digital pundits offering reactionary and unworkably prescriptive advice. Any parent who deviates from the "recommended" screen-time for their children runs a risk of judgment, treating technology as a "digital pacifier."

Just like the watershed before it, the Online Safety Act mitigates risks but won't remove them altogether. It is ultimately still on parents to decide how to deal with them in accordance with their family values. The more the reporting around this area is endlessly negative, the more difficult that becomes.

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