Children: Social Media

Baroness Penn Excerpts

Wednesday 10th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The role of parents and of media literacy is, of course, critical. Indeed, as technology evolves, as access changes, the department will be supporting parents and carers with media literacy. From next year, there will be some pilot projects to support families navigate the online space, particularly in critical thinking and in trying to understand misinformation, disinformation and so on. We are also working very closely with the Department for Education to establish some parental support and some parental hubs in order to support parents having some of those quite difficult conversations.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister talked about support for parents. Last week, the Centre for Social Justice released a new analysis showing that almost 1 million preschool children are active on social media, something that even the platforms, I would say, do not think is appropriate. That number is rising rapidly. What work are the Government doing with platforms, Ofcom and parents and carers specifically to support those who care for preschool children—nought to five-year-olds—to navigate this online world?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

As I mentioned before, we think it is incredibly important to support parents to navigate the online world and support their children’s access. I mentioned the pilot awareness campaign, which is more targeted at eight to 14 year-olds, but I believe the resources that will be available with the Department for Education are more extended. We also support Ofcom’s updated media literacy duties under the Online Safety Act. As part of that, Ofcom is delivering a three-year media literacy strategy that prioritises support for children and families.