On 15 June, the government published a progress statement in response to the ‘Growing up in the Online World’ consultation. This set out that social media companies will be banned from providing their services to under 16s, we plan to follow the updated Australia definition which includes Youtube. We plan to lay regulations by the end of the year, which will set out our approach.

To enforce these age restrictions, services will need to use highly effective age assurance to determine who has access to services, to prevent risky or harmful services being offered to children. The Secretary of State has asked Ofcom to conduct a rapid assessment of what highly effective age assurance looks like for determining whether someone is over 16, and to publish this assessment by October.

The Department has held a series of Ministerial roundtables with the public service media providers and video sharing platforms to encourage industry led voluntary partnerships ensuring public service media content is made prominent, and on fair terms. While our strong preference is for voluntary agreements, and we are undertaking work to promote these, if we need to legislate we will.

The department does not collect or hold data on the amount of time spent in schools watching YouTube content during lessons, nor does the department hold information or make estimates regarding any associated revenue earned by YouTube from its use in educational settings.

Ministers and officials regularly meet with representatives of tech platforms; however no discussions were had with platforms - including Alphabet or its subsidiaries – on this topic prior to the announcement of the design of the pilots and the services in scope.

The Government notes the outcome of KGM Vs. Meta et al. The exclusion of a platform from a pilot does not prevent their inclusion in future policy interventions.

Ministers and officials regularly meet with representatives of tech platforms; however no discussions were had with platforms - including Alphabet or its subsidiaries – on this topic prior to the announcement of the design of the pilots and the services in scope.

The Government notes the outcome of KGM Vs. Meta et al. The exclusion of a platform from a pilot does not prevent their inclusion in future policy interventions.

The department takes the issue of online harms very seriously. Our ‘Keeping children safe in education’ statutory guidance makes clear that schools and colleges should ensure appropriate filtering and monitoring systems are in place and that their effectiveness is regularly reviewed. This limits children’s exposure to harmful content while on school-managed devices.

The department does not hold specific data on the frequency of inappropriate, violent or age‑inappropriate content encountered by teachers or pupils when using YouTube during lessons.

We recognise that technology poses risks as well as benefits and schools need to be proactive in managing this. Schools need to have appropriate filtering and monitoring systems in place, so young people are kept safe online while in school. In response to concerns from the sector, we have published filtering and monitoring and cyber security standards which outline how schools can implement safe and secure technology.

Protecting children online is a priority for the Secretary of State and this government. The Online Safety Act provides strong foundations for protecting children across the UK. We have always been clear that we will build on that foundation and published a consultation and national conversation which sought views and evidence from people across the UK on measures that could further protect children online and enhance their wellbeing.

The government published a progress report on the consultation on 15 June, outlining plans to restrict social media services from providing access to under 16s alongside restrictions on functionalities for wider services. Further details will be published in July.

In February, to assist in designing the Growing up in an Online World pilots, the Department sought advice from the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser. To provide advice, Dame Angela Mclean convened a roundtable of experts from both inside and outside government to offer guidance on the study of policy interventions on social media. That roundtable did not, however, offer advice on precisely which platforms to include in the pilots. The Expert Panel set up alongside the consultation had not, at that time, been established.

The exclusion of a platform from the pilot should not be taken as that platform being excluded from a future policy intervention.

The decision not to include YouTube as part of the Government’s child social media pilot study was due to the use of the platform by schools and youth organisations for teaching and other educational purposes.

Next steps will be considered once the current studies have concluded.

The Government will shortly lay the On-demand Programme Services (Tier 1 Services) Regulations 2026. These regulations will designate video-on-demand services with more than 500,000 average monthly users in the UK as Tier 1 services, bringing them under enhanced regulation by Ofcom. Under the Media Act 2024, YouTube channels that commercial public service broadcasters use to fulfil their public service remit will also be Tier 1 services. Other channels hosted on video-sharing platforms, such as YouTube, are exempt from the regulations. However, these channels may still have other legal obligations, for example under the Online Safety Act 2023. Further information, including a draft of the regulations, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statement-on-designation-of-tier-1-video-on-demand-vod-services.

As digital and social media become central to how people consume information, Government is adapting its communications approach to meet audiences where they are.

Digital and social media channels enable us to reach audiences more cost-effectively, delivering better value from communications budgets.

The table shows monthly platform expenditure for the last 12 complete months. Twitter/X is excluded due to zero expenditure. This list is not comprehensive of all social media platforms used.