Our response to the "Growing up in the Online World" consultation

In March 2026, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology launched a consultation in England and Wales: Growing up in the online world. Proposals include potential age restrictions on social media, gaming sites and AI chatbots, limits on addictive design features, and improved support for parents and families.

We have responded to this consultation, focusing particularly on the social media use for children in care and the experience of foster carers in managing this. To inform our response, we carried out a survey to gather views from our foster carer and fostering services members across England and Wales. In total, 251 responses were received and were broadly proportionate across England (87.3%) and Wales (12.7%), and the key themes were consistent across both nations.

From responses from this survey, we understand this is a difficult, sensitive and evolving issue which elicits a wide range of views and there is not one easy answer.

We believe age-appropriate measures and restrictions could play an important role in strengthening online safety and protecting children and young people from harmful content and behaviours which can occur online such as bullying, exploitation and grooming. We believe restrictions will also improve their mental health and wellbeing.

Many responses to our survey identified that addictive and risky features have major impacts on young people’s behaviour and mental health and that this often comes at the detriment of their creativity, friendship and ability to play and be present in the real world.

Features of social media identified that create safeguarding risks include:

• Interactions with others, messaging with strangers and live streaming
  
• Exposure of sensitive content, sending and receiving nude images and videos
  
• Location sharing 
  
• Infinite scrolling, engagement driven algorithms and autoplay

 

Respondents also had similar cautions about chatbots and AI, citing significant safeguarding risks, including emotional relationships, harmful content, misinformation, and over-reliance.

Introducing restrictions would help also protect children and young people from criminal exploitation and grooming which young people in care can be particularly vulnerable to.

While some benefits of online services were identified, such as supporting education and maintaining contact with friends and family if living far away from home, 80% said that the risks strongly or somewhat outweigh these benefits. 

Based on the responses we received and our view, we would recommend that there is a legal requirement introduced for social media services to implement minimum age requirements for access and that there should be age-appropriate restrictions on specific features and functionalities, particularly around AI chatbot use. 

In total, 96.4% of respondents supported having a legal age threshold, and 91.2% agreed with setting this at 16. Many linked this to increased maturity and understanding of online risks at 16. Some argued for even higher thresholds (18+) for particularly high-risk features, while others said 16 was too old and suggested a more gradual approach as children develop at different rates.

Foster carers highlighted that having clear legal restrictions would help reduce conflict within households as many described the potential difficulties of enforcing new online boundaries without a consistent national framework to support them. Some explained that this could result in a disconnection from the fostering family and potentially unplanned endings.

Foster carers consistently emphasised that children and young people in care may face heightened risks online. Experiences of trauma, instability, and isolation, alongside higher rates of additional learning needs can increase vulnerability to grooming and exploitation. Perpetrators often exploit these vulnerabilities by offering affection, validation, or a sense of security.

Frequent changes in living situations can also disrupt relationships with trusted adults, peers, and siblings. This can make it more difficult to maintain consistent boundaries and can limit opportunities for children to discuss what they encounter online.

At the same time, respondents recognised that online platforms could play an important role in helping children maintain contact with family and friends. However, there were concerns that unsupervised contact can sometimes be emotionally challenging and difficult to manage safely.

We acknowledge that children are living in a digital world and that it is important for them to learn to use social media safely when they are developmentally ready, in line with their evolving capacities as set out in the UNCRC. 

However, we are concerned that a blanket requirement for a minimum age of access will remove children’s rights to access any social media services, including some that have positive benefits for their education and wellbeing. For children and young people in care specifically, it could remove online spaces where they feel included and are able to connect with others or peers that share aspects of their identity. It would also remove spaces where they can continue to connect with friends and family that they may have moved away from and help maintain those important relationships. Children in care are more likely to feel isolated and need these spaces for connection which can be positive for their mental health if managed carefully. 

We are also concerned that the restrictions proposed may not solve all the negative issues linked to social media and harmful content will still be able to reach children and young people. We would strongly recommend that technology companies running online platforms are better regulated and held to account by the Government so that children only have access to safe platforms and are appropriately safeguarded.