Addendum: March 2026
In Spring 2026, we will carry out Phase 2 of this project which will focus more precisely on parental control tools and functions offered by four major online platforms. As with Phase 1, the focus of the audit will be to capture insights on the design of these tools; how locatable they are on platforms; and how informative they are to users. All activity will be tightly controlled to ensure researcher safety and minimise user interaction."
In Winter 2025, we are carrying out behavioural audit research on the topic of digital media literacy initiatives across a number of major online platforms. This work is being carried out by Ofcom's Behavioural Insights Hub (BI Hub) in partnership with Ofcom's Making Sense of Media Team (MSOM). The work is in service of MSOM's Best Practice Design Principles for Media Literacy workstream, and aims to enable MSOM to work closely with platforms to provide effective interventions.
As part of this work, researchers from the Bi Hub will use Ofcom-managed accounts and devices to access and use platform-provided media literacy functions, and record insights on these functions. All activity will be tightly controlled to ensure researcher safety and minimise user interaction.