Thank you for contacting me about children and smartphone usage.
A large body of research has linked the amount of ‘screen time’ such as watching television, playing computer games, and using smartphone apps with negative outcomes for children of all ages.
The Department for Education has published new guidance which backs head teachers in banning mobile phone use throughout the school day to tackle disruptive behaviour and online bullying while boosting attention during lessons. This is supporting the wider work the Government is doing to raise standards in schools by increasing students’ focus and reducing distractions. The new guidance says that schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones, but they will have autonomy on how to do this.
Furthermore, the online world should not be a refuge for encouraging self-harm or anti-social behaviour, and the Government is committed to ensuring that there are sufficient protections for children of all ages online. The Online Safety Act 2023 contains strong protections for children.
I will continue to follow discussions about the Online Safety Act as it remains paramount that children are protected in all aspects of life. For more information on how this Act works please use this link: Online Safety Act: explainer - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
On the 8th of May 2024 Ofcom spoke to a number of MPs at the launch of their Protection of Children Consultation. This gave very useful insight into how Ofcom plan to protect young people from exposure to harmful sites and apps by placing responsibility predominately on businesses. I am a member of a group of Conservative MPs who made improvements to the Online Safety Act, and whilst I was unable to attend the debate in Westminster Hall on the impact of smartphones and social media on children on 14th May, I fully back my colleagues call to introduce effective legislation to protect children from a real and present danger.
As Ofcom state it is essential that businesses comply with necessary regulations so that young people are not exposed to age-inappropriate content or harmful content. As well as protecting children from illegal material, all services likely to be accessed by children will need to provide additional protection for those children. Those safety measures will need to protect children from harmful behaviours such as bullying, abuse and harassment, as well as content depicting or promoting violence.
To read further details on this interesting consultation and of the important work that Ofcom are carrying out please use this link: Consultation: Protecting children from harms online - Ofcom.
The Government’s Family Hubs programme is helping thousands of families across England with issues such as mental health and relationship building. Parents across England can now access free help and support at local Family Hubs, with all 75 local authorities involved in the government scheme now offering access to a centre. These 75 areas are benefitting from £300 million of investment, with the hubs offering support from conception through to age 19, or up to 25 for children with special education needs and disabilities. We have 3 Family Hubs in Hastings and St Leonards, a policy which I successfully campaigned for and which the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak funded when he was Chancellor, and the Youth Hub in Hollington has recently received a boost of £3.4 million from Levelling-up funding, which I also campaigned for, to transform the services to include a wide range of health and well-being services in partnership with our local NHS.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Sally-Ann Hart MP