Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On January 20, 2026, the UK government announced a consultation aimed at strengthening children’s well-being in the digital age. The initiative seeks to address growing concerns over the impact of mobile phones and social media on young people.

Following the UK government’s announcement, inspectors of Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (“Ofsted”) will now be required to scrutinize school mobile phone policies during every inspection, with the expectation that schools will be phone-free environments by default. The UK government indicated that this policy aims to tackle the worrying trend of device overuse among students.

The UK government’s consultation on children’s use of technology will seek views from parents, young people, and civil society. The consultation will seek views on a range of ideas under consideration:

• exploring a social media ban for children under a certain age;
• raising the digital age of consent;
• improving age assurance measures for platforms;
• restricting addictive design features such as ‘streaks’ and ‘infinite scrolling’; and
• enhancing parental support and controls.

There has been a significant regulatory focus in the UK on protecting children’s use of social media and digital services, in particular following the introduction of mandatory age checks on adult sites from July 25, 2025, in accordance with the provisions of the UK Online Safety Act. More recently, in December 2025, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office launched a review of children’s privacy in mobile gaming, assessing factors such as targeted advertising and privacy settings (read our previous blog here). The UK government indicated that the consultation aims to build on its recent progress in protecting children online. 

Read the press release here.