Year 2025 Child Safety Assessment

From OpenStreetMap Foundation

OFCOM QUESTION 1: Accessible by Children

  • Can children normally access the service or part of it?
  • It is possible for children based in the UK to access our service.
  • We do not test for age in a reliable manner and there is no barrier to access.
  • Is the child user condition met?
  • It is possible for a child based in the UK to use our service.

OSMF ANSWER 1ː

  1. Anyone can access parts of our service. Other parts are restricted to members.
  2. We do not believe that a significant number of UK based children access the service, and we do not believe that our service is likely to attract a significant number of UK based children.
  3. We do not use traffic research that could give us clear number of UK based children using our service.
  4. Our strategy to attract users is not focused on children. Our users have a narrow range of interest, specifically they support the collaborative creation of a map of the world.
  5. As far as we can tell our primary audience is male, adult, and of all cultures.
  6. Users who are female, adult, from all cultures would be the second largest group.

OFCOM QUESTIONS 2ː Attracting Children

Is my service of a kind likely to attract a significant number of UK users who are children?

  • Whether my service provides benefits to children.
  • Whether the content on my service is appealing to children.
  • Whether the design of my service is appealing to children (colours, presentation, features and functionalities).
  • Whether children form part of my business model, marketing strategy and growth plan.
  • Evidence from internal sources (e.g., reporting and complaints of users under 18 and statistics on account removal of users under 18).
  • Evidence from external and independent sources (e.g., market research and quantitative evidence from third parties that track child media consumption).

OSMF ANSWER 2ː

  1. Our service may be of some interest to older teens interested in geography.
  2. We don’t believe the service is of much interest to the majority of children.
  3. We do not design the service to be attractive to children. We are an adult oriented service. Adult as in older, not as in pornography.
  4. Children form no part of the business model.
  5. We have no indication from internal sources that we have child users.
  6. We have no indication volunteered by third parties that we have child users. We have not asked third parties for that information.

OFCOM QUESTIONS 3ː Used by Children

Does my service have a significant number of UK users who are children?

  • Whether children form part of my commercial strategy (e.g., information provided to or by advertisers such as number of clicks on ads that show an interest in child-focused advertising, and evidence from my business growth strategy).
  • Evidence from internal sources (e.g., reporting and complaints of users under 18 and statistics on account removal of users under 18).
  • Evidence from external and independent sources (e.g., market research and quantitative evidence from third parties that track child media consumption).

OSMF ANSWER 3ː

  1. We are a charitable non-profit. We do not have advertisers. We do not have a commercial strategy. We do not try to attract children.
  2. We have no indication from internal sources that we have a significant number of UK users who are children. We have a few childish adult users.
  3. We have no indication volunteered by third parties that we have a significant number of UK users who are children. We have not asked third parties for that information.

OFCOM QUESTIONS 4ː Benefitting Children

Your service has the potential to benefit children

  • Providing educational value for children.
  • Entertaining or allowing children to be creative.
  • Enabling children to express themselves.
  • Facilitating the sharing of advice and support between children.
  • Providing a supportive environment for child users, where some may feel a sense of belonging.
  • Facilitating children connecting with others, including to build friendships or relationships.

OSMF ANSWER 4ː

  1. An older teen, in the 15-17 group might benefit educationally from our service.
  2. Our service is not entertaining or creative in the accepted sense.
  3. We do not believe that we have any children expressing themselves on our service
  4. We don’t have any evidence of children sharing advice and support on our service.
  5. We do not believe that our service would be a supportive environment for a child user.
  6. Our service is not a social networking service. It provides some chat and discussion features that are limited to technical discussions about mapping.

OFCOM QUESTIONS 5ː Appealing to Children Part 1

The content on your service appeals to children

  • Entertainment and popular culture
    • Music, videos, humour/funny content. Influencers, celebrities, music, film, TV, books, comics, cartoons, animation.
    • Content created by children may particularly appeal to other children.
  • Creative activities
    • Art, music, singing, photography, videography, drawing, painting, cooking, drama and acting, crafts, creative writing, beauty and
    • Makeup and fashion.
    • Content created by children may particularly appeal to other children.
  • Games and sports
    • Gaming, sports, esports and sports personalities.
  • Making connections, friendships, dating, and relationships
    • Content about friendships, relationships, and other personal bonds.
    • Content of a sexual nature.
  • Self-improvement, lifestyle and careers
    • Content about future careers and finance.
    • Content from lifestyle influencers.
  • Health, challenges and support
    • Content about relationships, physical, mental and any other personal issues and challenges.
    • Content enabling engagement with other individuals experiencing the same challenges as above.
    • Content proposing to offer support, guidance or advice for the above.
    • Content about wellness, health and fitness

OSMF ANSWER 5ː

Not one of the above major or minor categories are applicable

OFCOM QUESTIONS 6ː Appealing to Children Part 2

  • Education, learning and knowledge
    • Content enabling the development of new skills.
    • Content to help with schoolwork and homework (looking up information).
    • Content providing advice on further education and careers.
    • Motivational content around self-improvement.
    • Financial content (making money and becoming financially independent)

OSMF ANSWER 6ː

  1. Yes, our maps may help with geography schoolwork and homework.
  2. The four other items relating to skills, advice, self-improvement or finances are not applicable to our service.

OFCOM QUESTIONS 7ː Appealing to Children Part 3

  • Current affairs and engaging in civil activity
    • Consuming content through non-traditional media.
    • News about music and musicians, celebrities, and other influencers.
    • Petitions
    • Informal political commentary
  • The design of your service appeals to children.
    • Bright, bold colours and characters that capture their imagination, cartoons, graphics, storylines, and other interactive features all play a role in attracting children.
    • Some functionalities are appealing to children and used by children, for example, the ability to make a user profile, making connections with other users, and direct messaging.

OSMF ANSWER 7ː

Most of the above are applicable. We do have user profiles and the ability to interact with other users on text media. The design is very simple and no part of it is intended to be attractive to children.

OFCOM QUESTIONS 8ː Targeting Children

  • Children form part of your commercial strategy
    • you actively target children as part of your audience, for example by advertising your service as one for children or by including content types or designing it in a way that is likely to attract children
    • you allow advertising, promotions or competitions targeted at children on your service, as their nature, design and content may be likely to particularly appeal to children
    • your service’s revenue stream is linked to attracting children onto a service
    • it is advertised on other services that are targeted at children
    • your service has a fast-growing user base it may reflect an increased likelihood of children engaging with your service.
  • Children may also be attracted to new and innovative services, as they are typically early adopters of technology

OSMF ANSWER 8ː

  1. We are a charitable, non-profit organisation.
  2. We do not actively target children, we do not advertise, hold promotions or competitions.
  3. Our primary revenue stream is donations from large companies. No part of our revenue stream is based on children.
  4. We do not advertise on other services, including those targeted at children.
  5. Our user base grows annually but we don’t have a fast-growing user base. Our users are primarily adults.
  6. Our technology is old-school and of no interest to early-adopters.

OFCOM QUESTIONS 9ː Complaints and Evidence

Additional evidence

  • The number of complaints (if any) that you have received relating to children accessing your service (e.g., reports flagging users below the age permitted on your service; and any actions taken previously in connection with children to enforce your terms, for example the number of accounts previously removed of users below the age permitted on your service).
  • Evidence from external/third party sources demonstrating that your service is not likely to attract children.

OSMF ANSWER 9ː

  1. We have no evidence of child users on our service. Complaints, reports and actions relating to child users is Zero.
  2. We do remove accounts, but all such removals have been of adults, mostly men, removed for persistent behaviour contrary to the objects of the service.
  3. No third party has told us that our service is not likely to attract children.


ENDS

13 MARCH 2025

G.C. ALLAN : Chair of the OpenStreetMap Foundation

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