1st Report - Growing up in the online world: The Education Committee’s response to the Government’s consultation

The Committee concludes that online harms affecting children are widespread, severe and systemic. The evidence we heard demonstrates clear links between children’s exposure to harmful online content (including material promoting self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, misogyny and sexual exploitation) and serious deterioration in mental health, wellbeing and behaviour, with tragic consequences in the most extreme cases. (Conclusion, Paragraph 6)

These harms are not accidental or isolated, but occur because of platform design choices, including algorithmic recommendation systems, infinite scrolling, autoplay and private messaging features, which repeatedly expose children to harmful or exploitative content at a scale which reactive moderation by the companies is not effectively addressing. (Conclusion, Paragraph 7)

The Committee is clear that the companies whose platforms are responsible for these harms cannot be left to self-regulate. We recommend that the Government treats online harms to children explicitly as a safeguarding and public health issue, rather than relying primarily on content moderation and reactive reporting systems. Preventative regulation should focus on reducing exposure to harm by policy and by design of the platforms themselves. (Recommendation, Paragraph 8)

Existing advice and resources for parents and carers are inconsistently promoted and insufficiently clear, leaving many families unsure how to manage screen use in a way that supports their children’s development, learning and wellbeing. (Conclusion, Paragraph 10)

We recommend that the Government develops and promotes clear, evidence-based national guidance for parents and carers on children’s use of digital devices and online services. This guidance should: 15 • set out age-appropriate principles for children’s screen use, including for pre-teenage children aged five and over, young teenagers, and 16-to-18-year-olds • address the impact of parental and carer screen time and online behaviours on children • integrate with wider online safety, early years, health and education strategies, so that parents receive consistent messages across services. (Recommendation, Paragraph 11)

We recommend that this guidance be co-designed with parents and carers, educators and child development experts, and communicated through schools, health services and online platforms, ensuring that families are supported to create healthy digital environments at home alongside significantly strengthened regulation of social media companies. (Recommendation, Paragraph 12)

We recommend that the Government introduces mandatory restrictions on high-risk and addictive design features, such as infinite scrolling, disappearing messages and algorithmic messages for under-18s, with appropriate age-related restrictions enabled by default, rather than relying on voluntary measures or user opt-ins. (Recommendation, Paragraph 15) Impact on schools, teachers and children’s education

Too much responsibility for managing online harms is currently placed on children, parents and carers, and schools—groups with limited power to influence platform behaviour. Schools are bearing a growing safeguarding and behaviour-management burden arising from online activity that takes place beyond the school day. Evidence shows that this burden is having a direct impact on teacher workload and pupil behaviour and learning, with significant staff time diverted from teaching and pastoral support towards managing incidents rooted in children’s social media use. (Conclusion, Paragraph 18)

We recommend that the Government rebalances responsibility for child online safety decisively towards social media and technology companies. The Government must ensure that schools, teachers and families are supported by regulation rather than left to compensate for unsafe digital environments, over which they have minimal control and cannot reasonably be expected to resolve alone. (Recommendation, Paragraph 19) 16

Action on mobile phone use in schools is necessary and broadly supported by teachers and school leaders. However, restrictions within schools alone cannot address the drivers of harm that originate in the wider online environment. We are concerned that the inconsistent application of guidance undermines schools’ ability to enforce restrictions and secure parental support. We therefore support the Government’s decision to place mobile phone guidance for schools on a statutory footing. (Conclusion, Paragraph 21)

Schools should not be able to adopt “not seen or heard” policies towards phones, whereby children can still have their phones in their school bags throughout the school day. This approach does not alleviate the distraction of mobile phones or prevent their use completely. Schools should be able to choose whether to adopt a phone-free policy under which phones are not permitted to be brought to school at all, or a “lock away” policy involving pouches or lockers. Schools that wish to use pouches or lockers should be provided with the funding to enable them to do so. (Conclusion, Paragraph 22)

The Government should publish detailed guidance on exemptions to the phone free policy, for example, for children who have smartphone enabled assistive technology or who are young carers, covering the implementation of exemptions and how children with exemptions will be protected from bullying and pressure during the school day. (Recommendation, Paragraph 23) The role and responsibilities of social media organisations

The Committee believes that social media organisations’ reliance on incremental improvements, voluntary measures and shared responsibility falls way short of the level of accountability that is required to address the scale and seriousness of the risks faced by children online. Social media companies have not yet demonstrated a sufficient level of accountability for the harms experienced by children on their platforms. Furthermore, we are concerned that commercial incentives to maximise engagement continue to outweigh child safety considerations. (Conclusion, Paragraph 27)

We recommend that the Government uses the powers available to it to impose clear, enforceable duties on platforms to prioritise child safety by design, backed by meaningful sanctions for non-compliance. (Recommendation, Paragraph 28) 17 The case for restricting social media use

There is a compelling case for an outright statutory ban on social media access for under-16s in order to reset the relationship children and families have with digital devices and social media, and to arrest the current harm. The evidence demonstrates that current regulatory and voluntary approaches have failed to prevent widespread exposure of children to serious harm, and that targeted or optional mitigations have not been implemented consistently or effectively. A clear legal boundary would provide greater protection for children, clarity for parents and carers, and schools, and a stronger basis for holding platforms to account for the environments they create. (Conclusion, Paragraph 32)

The Committee recommends that the Government introduces a statutory ban on the use of social media platforms for children under the age of 16. It is time to apply the brakes and prioritise children’s safety. (Recommendation, Paragraph 33)

The Committee is clear, however, that a ban alone is not enough to tackle the scale and complexity of the harms identified. Evidence suggests that children are likely to continue to access online services through circumvention and by accessing platforms that fall outside the definition of social media. For this reason, a ban must be understood as a necessary foundation for action, rather than a complete solution. The Committee notes strong support for a targeted, risk-based approach focused on restricting specific harmful features and functionalities in addition to blanket restrictions on entire platforms. (Conclusion, Paragraph 34)

We recommend that the Government introduces a risk-based and age- appropriate regulatory framework that applies consistently across social media, gaming and hybrid platforms, private messaging sites and AI chatbots, including sites and platforms widely used by children. This would have clear benefits in terms of future-proofing the approach to safeguarding children online. (Recommendation, Paragraph 35)

Age-based safeguards, including minimum age requirements and child protections, cannot be effective without robust, accurate and consistently applied age-assurance systems. Current approaches are unreliable and undermine both safety measures and public confidence. Whilst concerns have been raised about circumvention, including the use of VPNs, the evidence suggests that this is not yet occurring at scale and should not be used to justify inaction. (Conclusion, Paragraph 36) 18

We recommend that the Government works with mobile phone manufacturers to ensure that robust safety-by-design features are available and can be activated on all phones that can be used by children, including strengthening age-verification processes for downloading apps. (Recommendation, Paragraph 37)

We recommend that the Government establishes a clear and enforceable framework for age assurance across platforms likely to be accessed by children, with independent oversight and regular assessment of effectiveness. (Recommendation, Paragraph 38)

The Committee welcomes the publication of screentime guidance for under- 5s and recommends that the Government urgently publishes evidence- based screentime guidance for children and young people from the age of 5–18 with appropriate age-related strata. (Recommendation, Paragraph 39)

The Committee is clear that further research is needed on both the risks and dangers of social media, and gaming and hybrid platforms for those aged under 18, and the effectiveness of the measures that are needed to tackle and mitigate these pressing problems. As part of the implementation of the restrictions that we would like to see the Government bring in, it is important that, in order to assess the effectiveness of these new restrictions, there is a programme of Government-funded research, including provision for social media companies to grant independent researchers access to relevant internal data. (Recommendation, Paragraph 40)

Although it is beyond the scope of this Committee’s remit, it is clear that the issues that impact children also extend into adulthood. We encourage the Government to expand its work on social media harms and to investigate thoroughly their impact on adults. (Recommendation, Paragraph 41) 19