Recommendation 9

HM Government Acknowledged

As detailed in our response to recommendation 1, the UK’s Chief Medical Officers (CMO) review found an association but could not find evidence of a causal relationship between screen time and mental health in children. In order to improve this evidence base, on 20 November 2024, DSIT announced a feasibility study on methods and data to understand the impact of smartphones and social media on children. The study began on 2 December 2024 and will run for six months, until May 2025. The study is being conducted by the University of Cambridge and a wider consortium of experts from a range of universities. The study centres around questioning which methods will be most effective in determining the casual effects of social media and smartphones on children’s developmental outcomes in the next 2–3 years. The study will use evidence on appraisal techniques, and a workshop with academic experts, government stakeholders and youth advisors to assess the evidence and generate discussion on the research question. Additionally, the ‘Advice for parents and carers’ section of the UK’s Chief Medical Officers’ report encouraged parents and carers to agree on boundaries (outside school and educational use) with children and young people around online behaviours and time spent using screens. The ‘Advice for parents and carers’ continues by referencing many organisations that are working to support parents and carers in keeping children and young people safe online. Alongside the ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance, DfE also published a toolkit for schools, with practical advice and information for communicating a new policy on mobile phones with parents. The toolkit is designed to support schools in conducting conversations with parents about their mobile phones policy. We hope that the government’s clear stance on mobile phone use in schools may prompt parents to give further consideration to how children and young people are using mobile phones outside of school too. Media literacy is one of the key tools available to government to support parents and children in developing healthy digital habits. By equipping both children and adults with the knowledge and skills to navigate the online world safely, media literacy helps ensure users can make informed choices about their digital engagement. In 2024, this included £0.5 million to scale up two programmes, run by the National Literacy Trust and Parent Zone, to provide media literacy support to teachers, children aged 11–16, parents/carers and other professionals working with families. As part of this, Parent Zone has produced broadcast videos specifically focused on screen time, offering practical advice to parents on how to set boundaries and have a conversation with their children about healthy digital habits. Additionally, the Online Safety Act updated Ofcom’s statutory duty to promote and address media literacy in relation to regulated services in several new areas. This updated duty is already in force. Ofcom is now required to enhance public understanding of how to stay safe online, including by encouraging the development and use of technologies that help users of regulated services to protect themselves. Ofcom recently published their first triannual media literacy strategy. As part of this Ofcom will investigate specific impacts of platform design on user safety, including the impact of ‘persuasive design’ on children. The government looks forward to working with Ofcom as it implements the strategies laid out in this approach. Under the act, in-scope services likely to be accessed by children will need to comprehensively consider and assess the risk presented by the design and operation of their service, including the impact that their design choices, features and functionalities have on the level of risk of harm to children. They are then required under the child safety duties to mitigate and manage the risks to children that they have identified. These duties apply across all areas of a service, including its algorithms, functionalities and other features, the way it is operated, and used by children. Government is thinking carefully about future measures in this area, but any changes will need to properly balance the range of risks and benefits, especially in relation to protecting children’s rights to privacy and appropriate safeguarding of vulnerable children.