Below is a summary of our response to the UK Government’s ‘Growing up in the online world’ consultation. A copy of our full response can be found at the bottom of this blog.
Summary
- The UK Government’s consultation reflects growing concerns about children’s online safety, social media access and screen time.
- Internet Matters does not believe a blanket social media ban, on its own, is the most effective way to help children grow up safely, positively and confidently in a digital world.
- We recommend Government take a targeted, risk-based approach, requiring services used by children to demonstrate that their design, features and safeguards are safe and age-appropriate. Where services cannot do this, children should not be able to access those services or features.
- This approach must include restricting children’s access to the highest-risk features, ensuring age checks work in practice, and making parental controls easier, clearer and more consistent.
- Parents also need clearer tools and practical support, but responsibility for children’s online safety must not fall on families alone.
Introduction
Children are growing up in a digital world that is not always designed with them in mind. The Government’s ‘Growing up in the online world’ consultation rightly asks what further action is needed to make that world safer, healthier and more positive for children.
At Internet Matters, we welcome this much-needed conversation. Digital technology is now embedded in how children learn, socialise, play, create, seek support and access information. It will continue to be part of children’s lives, including in education and future work.
Yet our evidence shows that three in four children report experiencing harm online, while 44% say they feel they spend too much time online. Parents share these concerns and many want stronger action from Government and platforms to make online services safer and more age-appropriate.
Given that digital technology is already embedded in children’s lives, the answer cannot simply be to keep children away from the online world. We must make the online services they use safer, more age-appropriate and better designed around their wellbeing. This is the central argument in Internet Matters’ response to the Government’s consultation.
Why blanket bans are not enough
Calls to ban children from social media are rooted in parents and carers’ concerns. Many families feel that online services have not done enough to protect children from harm, and that stronger intervention is needed.
However, a blanket ban on social media is unlikely to be the right solution on its own. Children use a wide range of online services in different ways. Risks do not only exist on services labelled as ‘social media’; they can also arise on messaging services, gaming platforms, livestreaming services, AI chatbots and other online environments where children can interact with others, share content, be contacted by strangers or be kept online by persuasive design.
Our research also suggests that parents support targeted action alongside, and in many cases instead of, a blanket ban. When asked which alternatives they would support instead of banning social media for under-16s, only 10% of parents selected ‘none of these – I support a ban.’ Parents were more likely to support automatic parental controls for under-16s’ social media accounts (39%), child or teen accounts by default (38%), removing features designed to keep children online for longer (35%), explicit parental approval for under-16s to create accounts (35%), and restrictions on certain functionalities (34%).
This points to a more targeted approach being needed: reducing the specific risks children face online, while preserving access to digital spaces that are safe, beneficial and age-appropriate.
A more targeted approach
Internet Matters does not support a blanket ban on children’s access to social media. Instead, we recommend that Government takes a targeted, risk-based approach to children’s online safety.
This means services used by children should have to demonstrate that their design, defaults, features and safeguards are appropriate for the children they allow to use them. Where a service cannot show that children of a particular age can use it safely, it should not be able to make that service or those features available to them.
Government should also restrict children’s access to the functionalities that pose significant risks to children wherever they appear, not only on services formally categorised as social media. This includes preventing under-18s from sending or receiving nude images or videos, restricting disappearing content and livestreaming for under-16s, limiting risky location visibility, restricting private contact from unknown adults, and addressing persuasive design features that encourage prolonged or compulsive use.
Any age-based restriction will only work if it is supported by robust age checks and effective enforcement. Our research finds that 46% of children believe age checks are easy to bypass, and 32% say they have bypassed age checks in a two-month period. Age assurance must therefore work in practice, protect privacy and be used to provide safer, age-appropriate experiences – not simply to block access.
Families need support too
Safer service design and regulation are essential, but they are not enough on their own. Children and families also need the skills, knowledge and confidence to navigate digital environments safely and positively.
That means stronger media and digital literacy education in schools, practical guidance for parents, better support for children with additional needs, and media literacy built into online services by design. This support must keep pace with how quickly technology changes. As AI and other emerging technologies become embedded in children’s everyday services, both media literacy and platform regulation need to evolve.
Parents also need tools that are easier to find, simpler to use and more consistent across services. Our research finds that 83% of parents agree parental controls should be standardised across online platforms. Parental controls, screen time guidance and media literacy support can help families, but they must not be treated as substitutes for platform responsibility.
What Government should do next
Internet Matters’ response sets out a package of recommendations for Government. We recommend that Government should:
- develop a risk-based framework for minimum ages, so services used by children have to demonstrate that they are safe and age-appropriate;
- restrict children’s access to the highest-risk features and functionalities including nude image-sharing, livestreaming and persuasive design features;
- ensure age assurance works in practice and is used to provide safer, age-appropriate online experiences;
- urgently regulate AI chatbots accessed by children;
- strengthen media and digital literacy support in and out of school with clear guidance for schools, and training and resources for teachers;
- make parental controls easier, clearer and more consistent, with stronger default settings;
- support families with practical guidance, including on screen time; and
- ensure children can access high-quality, age-appropriate online content.
Children should be able to benefit from digital technology in ways that are safe, positive and appropriate for their age and stage of development. The goal should not be to cut children off from digital life, but to make the digital world safer and better for them.
