Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Department collects data on the health impacts of children’s exposure to harmful online content; and what assessment has been made of how the effectiveness of interventions designed to mitigate such harms will be evaluated.

The Government keeps the evidence on the health impacts of children’s exposure to harmful online content under close review and is committed to ensuring that children’s lives online are safe and enriching.

Following a national consultation, the Government will ban social media companies from offering their services to those under the age of 16. This is in line with the approach taken by Australia, and will include platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. The ban will restrict under 16s from accessing harmful functions, including livestreaming and stranger communications. These restrictions will apply to a wider range of online services, including on gaming sites. Regulations to enforce the ban will be laid this year, and the aim is for them to be in effect by Spring 2027. The ban will be implemented with stringent age assurance measures.

With regards to specific evidence reviews, in 2019, the UK Chief Medical Officers published a review of the evidence on screen-based activities and mental health. Since then, the government has continued to work closely with academic experts to review emerging evidence, including studies funded through the National Institute for Health and Care Research. In January 2026, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published a research report titled ‘Understanding the impact of smartphones and social media on children and young people’.

In addition, screen use guidance forms a core part of the Government’s wider response to online harms, complementing regulatory action by providing clear, practical advice to parents on supporting safe, balanced and developmentally appropriate use of digital technologies. Building on the publication of evidence‑based guidance for parents and carers of zero to five-year-olds in March 2026, we are now working across government to develop further parent facing guidance for five to 16-year-olds to promote safe and healthy engagement with the digital world.

The Government is also monitoring the recently announced ‘IRL Trial’, led by Professor Amy Orben, which is the first large-scale randomised controlled trial to examine how limiting access to social media may affect adolescent mental health.

We will continue to work closely with the University of Cambridge, the Wellcome Trust and wider organisations and researchers to study the impact of any interventions put in place to mitigate online harms.