Safety specialists say tech giants are failing to protect UK users from harmful content

Online safety specialists told Parliament’s Communications and Digital Committee that major technology companies are doing too little to protect people under the UK’s Online Safety Act. They said inconsistent search rankings and declining responses to harmful-content reports leave gaps that can expose women, girls and young people to illegal or abusive material.

Durham University professor Clare McGlynn cited search results where some terms related to extreme sexual content were pushed down, while similar phrases remained easier to find; she said the same inconsistency affected Google and Bing. Refuge data presented by Janaya Walker showed the success rate for reports handled through its Trusted Flagger team fell from 53.7 per cent before November 2025 to 18.2 per cent over the following 12 months, with no reports to Meta succeeding since November 2025. Experts also said VPNs can help users bypass age checks on sites that continue to host extreme content.