Government consultation on children's digital wellbeing now open



The government’s consultation seeks views on potential age restrictions on social media and other services. There are no set proposals, but the government is asking open questions about the minimum age of digital consent for information society services, and whether there should be a minimum age specifically for social media. The consultation looks beyond a ban and covers a full range of options, e.g. curfews.

The government is also asking whether the Department for Education’s (DfE) non-statutory guidance on ‘mobile phones in schools’ should be made statutory. This would mean schools have a legal duty to follow the guidance, which explains to individual schools and trusts how to implement a policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones throughout the school day, unless they have good reasons not to.

In addition, the consultation seeks views on whether platforms should be required to switch off addictive features that keep children hooked late into the night – like infinite scrolling and autoplay, and how age verification enforcement should be strengthened.

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PL&B’s 39th International Conference 6-8 July at St. John’s College, Cambridge, includes a session Digital vulnerability: Data privacy and consumer law compared led by Hannah Heilbuth, PhD Researcher, University of Nottingham and EPSRC Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training, UK