On 25 July, the UK’s Online Safety Act comes into force. Silicon Valley’s conscience was found wanting, and Ofcom will be the new sheriff in town.
The law requires social media platforms to do more to protect under-18s: verifying users’ ages, filtering harmful content, and making it easier for young people to report what they see.
So, what does this mean for British sport? That depends on whether you see change as a challenge or an opportunity.
British teams, leagues, NGBs and tech providers rely heavily on social media to engage young fans – many of whom now discover sport via TikTok clips, YouTube Shorts or algorithm-driven feeds, not through the back pages or linear TV. That reliance could mean a significant drop in visibility, just when sport is fighting for relevance with Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
But there is life outside social media (which may come as news to some in the junior Gens). Good examples include Wimbledon’s ventures into eChamps and WimbleWorld on Roblox, or British Cycling’s Ready Set Ride initiative.
Rights holders are increasingly investing in inspiring, youth-facing content – but they also carry a parallel responsibility: to protect their audiences, especially children. While it’s not a binary choice between engagement and safeguarding, evolving regulation has shifted the balance. Stronger legal frameworks now help mitigate risk, meaning the emphasis can tilt more confidently towards creative, purposeful storytelling.
With that in mind, sport has an opportunity to build its own owned spaces, with age-aware controls, to rethink tone and access, and to invest in AI-driven moderation, biometric log-ins, and intelligent content surfacing. Not just for compliance, but to earn trust.
I’m not a lawyer, but this law reflects a reality we can’t sidestep: digital access is about to get harder for younger users, and rightly so. Sport can either resent the restrictions (and let us know how that works out) or reimagine its relationship with the next generation.
Leave our youngest fans on the wrong side of the login screen, and sport will be the loser.
If you’re a lawyer working in this space, I’d love to hear your views.
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