The Government has announced the launch of a study into the effects of social media on children.

Announced at the same time as the Government published its draft Statement of Strategic Priorities (on which we have commented here), the new study will “explore the effects of smartphone and social media use on children, to help bolster research and strengthen the evidence needed to build a safer online world”.

The Government press release draws attention to a review in 2019 by the UK Chief Medical Officer that found that there was an insufficient evidence base to draw any strong conclusions about the link between children’s mental health and their use of smartphones and social media. Therefore, the first stage of the project will be to, in the words of the Secretary of State, Peter Kyle, “fire the starting gun on research which will help build the evidence we need to keep children safe online”.

The report is the latest in a series of developments on which we have commented which are focussed on keeping children safe online. Last month, the UK and US signed a Joint Statement on Child Online Safety and announced the establishment of a joint children’s online safety working group (which we wrote about here). We also await Ofcom’s statement following the conclusion of its major consultation into how regulated services should approach their duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 relating to content that is harmful to children (on which we have commented here and here).

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