United Kingdom, Oct. 6 -- Ofcom is investigating whether Meta breached the UK's online safety laws by failing to properly assess the risks of its new Instagram Instants feature before launching it.

Instants was introduced in May as a way for users to take and share photos with close friends, with images disappearing after they have been viewed.

Meta described the feature as "a new way to share photos in the moment".

The UK's communications regulator said its investigation would examine whether Meta failed to carry out "a suitable and sufficient illegal content risk assessment and children's risk assessment" before launching Instants.

Under the Online Safety Act (OSA), platforms such as Instagram must assess the risks posed by changes ...