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Children’s wellbeing and safety online

I am repeating the following Written Ministerial Statement made today in the other place by my Right Honourable Friend, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Rt Hon Liz Kendall MP.

Last month I announced a landmark package of measures to better protect children online. We announced that social media companies will no longer be able to offer their services to under-16s, introduced new restrictions on livestreaming and communications with strangers, and became the first country in the world to ban chatbots that offer sexualised content to children. We took these steps for a simple reason – to give children the best start in life, ensure their safety and wellbeing, and put power back in parents’ hands.

Today, we are publishing the second part of our response to the Growing up in the online world consultation, which had more than 116,000 responses from children, parents, teachers, industry, and civil society. Together with the measures announced last month, today marks the next step in our commitment to fundamentally reset expectations of what is safe and suitable for children online while ensuring young people are equipped to thrive in the digital world.

Default overnight and persuasive design restrictions

We know that online risks do not end when a child turns 16 years old, and our consultation results showed that nearly 1 in 3 children want help managing their screentime. We have heard clearly that we must support older teenagers to make safe, informed choices about their experiences online. We must also ensure that older teenagers are afforded appropriate levels of responsibility and agency as they approach adulthood. We will therefore require social media services to apply sensible default protections for 16- and 17-year-olds. These will include default overnight restrictions, with alerts and push notifications muted during a curfew period of midnight to 6am, and default restrictions at all times on persuasive features such as autoplay and personalised recommender feeds to reduce infinite scrolling and make it easier for teenagers to log off.

This is about giving these older children more choice and control over the feeds and reducing that sense that they can never switch off being online. This will allow them to develop healthier online habits and focus on the development of their futures.

AI chatbots

The government is also taking further action on AI chatbots and their impact on children and young people. We heard through the consultation of the benefits chatbots can offer children, particularly around education and creativity. But we also heard concerns about the novel risk emotional dependency can pose. We will therefore require mandatory breaks for under-18s using chatbots and will work with experts on how frequently, and for how long, these should happen.

I have said previously that there are serious concerns with other chatbots, including therapy chatbots. We will work with Department for Health and Social Care and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to take stronger action on chatbots that may pose risks to children, through harmful, inaccurate or unverified mental health advice. We can commit today to consider a full range of options, including, if necessary, banning certain services that present a threat to children where other regulatory and safety mechanisms are insufficient. We will ensure the regulatory system for AI medical devices supports children to access trusted, evidence-based support. This will ensure that, where children seek medical advice, children and their parents can be sure it meets certain standards and is safe.

We have always been clear that children should be able to benefit from the opportunities AI offers while being protected from harm and threats to wellbeing. We recognise that there is public appetite to do more on AI chatbots and how children use these, and the government reserves the right to take further action in this area.

Risks of circumvention

We have always been clear that some children will try to get around the new social media requirements. They may use someone else’s account, enter a false age, borrow another device or use tools such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). While it is not possible to entirely eliminate this, requiring the use of highly effective age assurance is one of the best ways to make a meaningful difference and build on the Australian experience.

VPNs have legitimate privacy and security uses and we will therefore not age-gate or ban them. Instead, we will put an onus on platforms in scope of the new restrictions to take robust steps to detect and prevent attempts by underage users to circumvent age assurance measures.

I have already asked Ofcom to report by October on what highly effective age assurance looks like for determining whether someone is over 16. Today, I have also asked them, with input from the Information Commissioner’s Office as necessary, to conduct research into what more services can do to detect and prevent VPN use on their platforms. We will also engage with VPN providers on voluntary action and strengthen guidance and support for parents.

We will keep this area under close review and reserve the right to take further action on this, should evidence show that it is needed.

Support for children

Alongside regulation, it is critical that children are equipped with the skills they need to navigate online life safely and confidently, reflecting the different services and experiences that they will have access to as they grow older. Online safety is a critical component of Relationships, Sex and Health Education where the curriculum has already been strengthened for the next school year.

Together with the Department for Education, we will further strengthen children’s online safety and digital resilience, supporting children and young people beyond the classroom through youth organisations, libraries, community groups and civil society partners.

A safer online world must not only reduce harms but also help children access positive educational and age-appropriate content.

We will bring forward new, clear proposals alongside the new rules for online services. These could include:

• age-appropriate guidance for parents and children on recognising positive content, using trusted sources and navigating online spaces safely;
• best practice principles for industry on the availability, discovery and visibility of high-quality content for children;
• reviews of international approaches and existing best practice to identify effective interventions and build the evidence base; and
• voluntary commitments to increase the prominence of trusted, educational, developmental and wellbeing-focused content for young people

Support for parents

Parents and carers remain central to keeping children safe online. We will further develop the Kids Online Safety Hub as the government’s principal source of trusted guidance and practical support, building on existing initiatives such as the You Won’t Know Until You Ask campaign. The Hub will provide further advice on subjects including AI, healthy screen use, parental controls and emerging online risks. We will also work closely with the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care as they develop guidance on the safe and positive use of devices for parents of children aged 5 to 16.

Conclusion

We are now moving at pace to implement our proposals, with the first regulations on the ban to be laid before the end of the year and coming into effect in early 2027.

The government is clear that this is not the end of the story, and that we will not hesitate to take further measures where needed to ensure children’s safety and wellbeing, while enabling them to benefit from the opportunities that digital technologies provide, so that every child gets the best start in life.