Ofcom set Snapchat a summer deadline to stop strangers contacting children on the app. Weeks after that deadline passed, Ofcom announced the fix as news, calling it long overdue without saying whose deadline had slipped.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. On 6 November 2026 Ofcom announced that Snapchat was switching off its "Find Friends" feature by default for child users, calling the change "long overdue" [1]. Ofcom's own 21 May report had already recorded this exact commitment from Snap, "backed up by use of Highly Effective Age Assurance," with a target of "effectiveness and completion by the end of the summer" [2], page 4. Three documented mistakes: four stars.
On 6 November, Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom's Online Safety Group Director, issued a statement responding to "Snapchat beginning roll out of anti-grooming measures for children." "As a result of sustained pressure from Ofcom, Snapchat is, from today, turning off its 'Find Friends' feature for child users by default, meaning children will be better protected from stranger danger online," he said. "Given how widely Snapchat is used by UK children, this is an important and welcome improvement in child online safety. It is also long overdue and we'll be holding the company to account on completing the rollout of this crucial safety measure this month" [[1]]. He added that Snapchat "has also recently confirmed to us that, by the end of this year, highly effective age checks should have been applied," and that "companies which fail to step up to the mark will face enforcement action" [[1]].
Nothing in that statement says when the clock on "overdue" actually started. Ofcom's own paperwork does.
A commitment Ofcom already logged, with its own completion date
On 12 March 2026, Ofcom wrote to six of the platforms most used by children, Facebook, Instagram, Roblox, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, setting out four demands, including "failsafe grooming protections" requiring "strict controls" to stop adults contacting children they do not know, backed by highly effective age assurance [[2]], page 3. Its 21 May report on the responses records Snap's answer in detail: "Snap committed to adopt all our grooming protection measures by introducing default settings which ensure that stranger adults are not able to contact children, and children are not encouraged to expand their friendship groups to strangers. It has also committed to using highly effective age assurance to ensure these protections are available to all UK children" [[2]], page 4. The same paragraph records that "Snap has already begun testing this measure, using existing age signals," and that "we will monitor implementation closely to ensure effectiveness and completion by the end of the summer" [[2]], page 4. A separate table in the same report, under "What happens next?", repeats the same outcome: Ofcom would monitor "Snap and Meta's implementation of their committed changes through regular progress updates and a detailed roadmap for change by mid-June" [[2]], page 6.
That is the same commitment the November statement describes as news: default settings stopping strangers contacting children, backed by age assurance, for Snapchat's under-18 users. In May, Ofcom itself set it a season. Even reading "the end of the summer" as generously as the calendar allows, the astronomical equinox on 22 September, the rollout Ofcom announced on 6 November had not yet begun, by Ofcom's own account, at least six weeks after that date. The November statement does not say so.
The part the fix depends on has a new, later date
The default-settings change is not a self-contained fix. Ofcom's own May language ties it directly to age assurance: Snap's grooming protections were described as "backed up by use of Highly Effective Age Assurance" because the default settings only protect "all UK children" if the platform can actually tell which accounts belong to children in the first place [[2]], page 4. That age-assurance rollout was part of the same "end of the summer" target in May. In November, Griffiths describes it as a separate, forward promise: Snapchat "has also recently confirmed to us that, by the end of this year, highly effective age checks should have been applied to ensure that all under-18s benefit from these new safety measures" [[1]]. The measure that makes the default-off change work for every child, not just those "existing age signals" happen to catch, has moved from a deadline that has already passed to a new one more than three months later, and the November statement presents that later date as a fresh commitment rather than a second slip of the one Ofcom recorded in May.
A warning with no date attached, following a deadline with no consequence
Griffiths' statement ends with an explicit threat: "tackling the risks of grooming to children is a non-negotiable, and companies which fail to step up to the mark will face enforcement action" [[1]]. Nothing in the statement, or in any Ofcom page or document cited here, attaches a date, a review point, or a named trigger to that threat for Snapchat specifically. The only accountability mechanism on record is the one Ofcom already used once: "we will monitor implementation closely" was the exact approach May's report used to track the end-of-summer deadline that passed without any public Ofcom statement noting it had passed [[2]], page 4. "We'll be holding the company to account on completing the rollout... this month" is the same kind of commitment, made by the same regulator, about the same company, after the first version of it already slipped unremarked.
The claims, tested
| Ofcom's claim (6 November) | What Ofcom's own May report recorded | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "As a result of sustained pressure from Ofcom, Snapchat is, from today, turning off its 'Find Friends' feature for child users by default" [[1]] | "Snap committed to adopt all our grooming protection measures by introducing default settings which ensure that stranger adults are not able to contact children"... "we will monitor implementation closely to ensure effectiveness and completion by the end of the summer" [[2]], page 4 | The rollout announced as new in November is the same commitment Ofcom recorded, and set a season for, in May |
| "Snapchat has also recently confirmed to us that, by the end of this year, highly effective age checks should have been applied" [[1]] | Snap's grooming protections were "backed up by use of Highly Effective Age Assurance", the same package targeted for "completion by the end of the summer" [[2]], page 4 | The part of the May deadline still missing has been given a second, later date, not flagged as a slip |
| "We'll be holding the company to account on completing the rollout of this crucial safety measure this month"..."companies which fail to step up to the mark will face enforcement action" [[1]] | "We will monitor Snap and Meta's implementation of their committed changes through regular progress updates and a detailed roadmap for change by mid-June" [[2]], page 6 | The same monitoring approach already failed to produce the end-of-summer completion it was meant to ensure, with no public acknowledgement when it did not |
The mistakes, counted
A "by the end of the summer" commitment presented as news in November, without saying so (1). Ofcom's own May report set the default-settings change a season, "effectiveness and completion by the end of the summer" [[2]], page 4. By even the most generous calendar reading, the announcement that the rollout had begun came at least six weeks after that date, with nothing in the 6 November statement noting that the "long overdue" change was overdue against a deadline Ofcom itself had set and was responsible for monitoring.
The age-assurance layer the whole fix depends on has slipped a second time, presented as a fresh promise (2). The default settings only protect "all UK children" with highly effective age assurance behind them, a package May targeted for the same end-of-summer completion [[2]], page 4. November's statement gives that same unfinished piece a new date, "by the end of this year," without describing it as a second delay on the same underlying commitment.
An enforcement threat with no date, following a monitoring deadline that already passed without one (3). "We'll be holding the company to account... this month" and "will face enforcement action" [[1]] carry no named trigger or review point. The only precedent for how Ofcom holds Snap to account on this specific measure is the May monitoring commitment that missed its own target with no public consequence or acknowledgement.
Credit where due
Ofcom's underlying four-demand framework, set out to six major platforms in March, is substantive, not cosmetic: all six platforms Ofcom wrote to committed to notifying Ofcom before significant product changes reach children, Snap included, going further than the Online Safety Act strictly requires [[2]], page 4. Ofcom has also already shown it will act on the powers it has: its May report records enforcement action against two providers for failing to respond to statutory information requests, and "compliance remediation with Snap which resulted in it making significant changes to their risk ratings in a number of key areas" [[2]], page 8. And the substance of the change itself is real: a default setting that stops strangers contacting children on one of the platforms Ofcom's own research identifies as high-risk for grooming is a genuine safety improvement, whenever it arrives.
Verdict
Four stars, from three documented mistakes. The protection Ofcom announced on 6 November is worth having. What the announcement does not do is tell readers that the regulator calling it "long overdue" is describing its own missed deadline: a completion date Ofcom itself set in May, for a measure Ofcom itself was responsible for monitoring, that passed without comment before Snapchat's name reached a press statement at all.
Sources
- Ofcom provides update following its call to action on tech industry to improve protections for children, Ofcom, 6 November 2026
- Update: tech firms' responses to our call for action to protect children, Ofcom, 21 May 2026 (PDF)