Hi Name,  

Welcome back to Safety Space, the digital space where we share the most important developments in Trust & Safety worldwide.

There has been a surge of activity on protecting children online, so much so that in this edition of Safety Space, you will find the key developments in this area grouped at the end of each section! And if you wish to learn more about minors’ online safety, we’ve also unpacked what Article 28 of the DSA means for children’s safety in our latest blog (scroll down to read it!).

Here’s what you need to know from the past few weeks:

+ 🇪🇺🇬🇧 DSA & OSA updates: The European Commission (EC) is scrutinising potential financial fraud under the DSA in relation to five VLOPSEs, and the EU General Court issued two rulings on the DSA. In the UK, Ofcom opened investigations into 22 adult-content sites and launched a consultation on “super-complaints.”

+ 🏭 In tech news: Google is expanding its efforts against non-consensual intimate imagery, OpenAI added parental control to ChatGPT, and TikTok released its new Transparency Report under the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation.

+ 🧒 A flurry of activity on protecting children online: 🇦🇺 Australia registered new codes to protect minors online, while 🇺🇸 California passed a bill requiring app-store age checks. Snapchat published a study on parental use of social media, while Meta updated its chatbots to better safeguard children, and Facebook and Messenger rolled out Teen Accounts worldwide. And if you are interested in some data, Thorn published its annual report on youth attitudes and online experiences.

📖 For fans of academic research: Don’t miss Volume 3 of the Journal of Online Trust and Safety!

This month marks four years of Tremau growing and learning alongside the global Trust & Safety community 🍾.

In this time, we’ve seen how valuable it is to have spaces - both online and in person - where peers can share experiences, compare challenges, and build practical solutions together. 

🔵 To keep strengthening those connections, we’re co-hosting a T&S afterwork event in Paris with Bodyguard: a relaxed evening to meet colleagues from across the T&S industry and swap ideas about the work we all care about. 🔵

🇪🇺🔎 In a growing number of enforcement actions, the EC sent requests for information to Apple AppStore, Google Play and Search, Bing, and Booking.com about their handling of fraudulent content and measures against financial scams. Losing track? Bookmark our DSA Database, a free resource covering all investigations, Trusted Flaggers, Out-of-Court Dispute Settlement Bodies, VLOPs/VLOSEs, and their transparency reports and risk assessments.

🇪🇺🧑‍⚖️ European General Court recent decisions on the DSA:

+ The Court upheld Zalando’s designation as a VLOP, ruling that none of its 83 million users could be excluded from the count. It also dismissed challenges to the proportionality of risk-assessment duties, noting that the risk of illegal or dangerous goods on marketplaces merits the stringent obligations.

+ The EU General Court annulled the Commission’s 2023 supervisory fee decisions for Meta and TikTok, finding that the calculation method should have been in the delegated act itself. The fees remain binding for now, and the Commission has 12 months to revise the act. 

🇪🇺🔏 The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted the guidelines on how the DSA and the GDPR interact. These detail how systemic risks affecting privacy trigger GDPR obligations, and stress that authorities need to collaborate for enforcement. It’s still up for consultation, have your say until 31 October 2025.

🇳🇱📱 The Netherlands DSA enforcer opened an investigation against Snapchat for allegedly allowing the sale of e-cigarettes in breach of the DSA. This followed an enforcement request sent by the Youth Smoking Prevention Foundation.

🇬🇧🔞 Ofcom opened investigations into five companies operating 22 adult-content websites to assess their age-verification systems and expanded their investigations against Itai Tech and 8579 LLC. Together, these sites attract over 8 million UK visitors monthly. Keep up to speed and track all the enforcement actions from Ofcom under the OSA in our free database.

🇬🇧📩 Ofcom launched a consultation on its draft guidance for “super-complaints” under the OSA. The purpose of super-complaints is to allow independent organisations to bring robust evidence and facts to Ofcom’s attention about significant online harms and restrictions on free expression arising on online platforms in the UK. Feedback is open until 3 November 2025.

🔞 Regulatory decisions on online safety for minors:

+ 🇦🇺 The Australian eSafety Commissioner registered new codes to protect children from harmful online content across app stores, gaming services, and pornography sites, requiring age-assurance technologies and complementing the social media minimum-age rule starting in December.

+ 🇦🇺 The eSafety Commissioner also contacted 16 platforms—including Pinterest, Roblox, Kick, Twitch, and GitHub—to self-assess whether they fall under the upcoming ban on under-16 social media use.

+ 🇺🇸 In California, a bill requiring device makers and app stores to verify users’ ages passed unanimously and is awaiting the Governor’s signature.

⬇️💻 Google partnered with the StopNCII program to combat non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) on Search. Over the next few months, Google will begin using StopNCII’s hashes to proactively identify and remove flagged content.

🤳🇪🇺 TikTok published its sixth Transparency Report under the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation, highlighting that 90% of election-related violations were removed before any view  (“zero-view removals”), a 15-point improvement from the last period.

🔞 This month, new or enhanced features focused on children's online safety were rolled out:

+ 🖥️ Twitch started implementing face-scan age verification in the UK. The age checks are required for sign-in, with the platform blocking users under 13. Users willing to interact with mature content will also need to verify their age. Twitch says neither it nor its vendor stores the video selfies.

+ 🤖 OpenAI launched parental controls for all ChatGPT users, letting parents link their accounts with their children and adjust settings by age. 

+ 📲 Meta announced that it has hundreds of millions of Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Currently, the Teen Account option is only on Instagram, but global rollout for Facebook and Messenger is coming soon.

+ 🤖 Meta also updated its chatbots to avoid engaging with teenagers on sensitive issues such as self-harm, eating disorders, and romantic advances. According to the platform, stronger safeguards are planned. 

+ 🎮 Roblox expanded its age-estimation technology to all users and partnered with the International Age Rating Coalition to provide age and content ratings for its games and apps. By the end of the year, the age-estimation system will be available to users accessing communication tools, such as voice and text chat. Additional measures will further limit adult–minor interactions.

As promised, here’s a breakdown of the in-person events we will be attending this month.

📅 This month, we’re also hosting our new WEBINAR “Track, Measure, Report”

Trust & Safety leaders will share how data & transparency are key for compliance requirements, robust operations, and user protection & experience.

👀 Expect peer insights and practical ways to elevate industry practices together.

🇪🇺 Do you know what Article 28 from DSA means for online platforms & minors?

📝 In July, the EC published new guidelines for Article 28 of the DSA to ensure a high level of safety, privacy, and security for minors.

🔵 While non-binding, these guidelines now set a standard, defining what regulators will look for when assessing compliance - setting a new benchmark for every platform accessible to children.

💻🇪🇺 How platforms govern online content? Dr. Charis Papevangleou and Dr. Fabio Votta analyzed over 400 million Statements of Reasons from the DSA Transparency Database. They found that while transparency improves oversight, it risks reinforcing automated moderation focused on scale and compliance over context.

💡🏋️ Why Safety is the Future That Powers Every Other Feature? Navpreet Randhawa, Senior Director of T&S at Roblox, wrote this column on how, for online platforms, safety is not only “the right thing to do” but it is also the smartest way to build products people trust, use, and pay for. 

🤖🔎 Demystifying Trust & Safety: AI Isn’t a Policy Analyst, but It’s Being Asked to Act Like One. This article, written by Daisy Soderberg-Rivkin, a T&S professional, reflects on how AI is getting involved in the daily work of T&S, what the ongoing challenges are, and how to take the most out of it.

🔵📘 The Responsible Tech Guide from All Tech Human is out! Get it now to explore what's going on at the intersections between Responsible AI, Trust & Safety, and Public Interest Technology.

Some interesting publications you shouldn’t miss on children’s online safety:

+ 🧒❗ “Younger boys are showing concerning increases in the risk of potentially harmful online experiences — particularly of being solicited with online sexual advances”: Thorn in their Annual Report of Youth Attitudes and Experiences. The report gives insights into the platforms used by minors, including services that are designed for adult users, such as dating apps or adult-content websites. 

+ 🧑‍💻 A study by Snapchat and Havas Media Network examined how 7,500 parents aged 18-59 from the US, UK, Canada, France, and Saudi Arabia use social media since becoming parents. The study revealed that 80% of parents set rules, such as time limits, for their children's social media use. The study also explored parents’ engagement with creators and purchase decisions.