The Education Committee has called for a statutory ban on social media for children, alongside urgent action to address features it says are deliberately designed to drive excessive screen use among children and young people.
This includes infinite scrolling, disappearing messages and algorithm-driven content, which the Committee says contribute to prolonged screen time, disrupt sleep, reduce attention and behavioural problems.
The Committee also calls for a coherent, risk-based and age-appropriate regulatory framework that applies consistently across social media, gaming and hybrid platforms, private messaging services and AI chatbots including platforms widely used by children.
In a report setting out the Committee’s response to the Government’s consultation on ‘Growing up in the online world’, MPs argue that social media companies and other platforms have not demonstrated enough accountability for the harms children experience on their platforms and raise concerns that these platforms prioritise engagement over child safety.
“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,” the Committee says.
The Committee’s report states that online harms affecting children are “severe and systemic” and are linked to serious deteriorations in mental health, wellbeing and behaviour, sometimes with tragic consequences. These harms are not accidental or isolated but occur because of platform design choices such as algorithmic recommendations or infinite scrolling.
The Government should treat online harms to children as a safeguarding and public health issue and preventative regulation should focus on reducing exposure to harm by policy and design of the platforms themselves. The Committee also recommends that the Government should ensure that platforms prioritise safety by design through clear, enforceable duties, backed by meaningful sanctions.
Additionally, the Committee supports the Government’s decision to put mobile phone guidance for schools on a statutory footing. The Committee argues that schools should not be able to adopt “not seen, not heard” policies, which do not fully alleviate the distraction of mobile phones. Schools should be able to choose between banning phones from school completely or having students lock them away in pouches or lockers, and funding should be made available to support the latter.
MPs say the Government should publish detailed guidance on exemptions to the phone free policy, such as for children who use smartphone enabled assistive technology or who are young carers.
Chair of the Education Committee, Helen Hayes MP, said: “From bullying and misogyny to abuse and sexual exploitation, children and young people growing up today face a deluge of serious harms whenever they log on to social media. The same platforms that connect them to their friends, or introduce them to new hobbies, are putting their mental health and wellbeing at risk.
"In the most extreme cases, inaction can have truly horrific consequences. Yet social media companies have not taken full responsibility for the behaviour on their platforms. Based on the evidence my Committee has received, I simply do not believe that companies who profit from interactions with children can be relied upon to self-regulate."
