We welcome the UK Government’s consultation on Growing up in the online world: a national conversation. This is an important opportunity to reflect on children’s experiences and to take meaningful action to make digital environments safer.
Children and young people in Wales are clear that being online is not separate from their lives, it is central to how they learn, communicate, socialise and understand the world. Alongside these opportunities, children are also clear about the harms they face, including bullying, harmful content and unsafe contact.
The challenge is not whether children should be online. They already are. The challenge is how we ensure the spaces they use are safe, fair and designed with their rights in mind.
What children have told us
Our response is grounded in extensive engagement with children and young people across Wales.
Children describe the internet as a vital space for connection, creativity and support. For some, particularly those who feel isolated offline, online spaces provide a sense of belonging and access to communities they cannot find elsewhere.
At the same time, many children told us about the risks they regularly encounter — from cyberbullying and pressure to stay constantly connected, to exposure to distressing or inappropriate content.
Children are often navigating these challenges without feeling fully protected, and without confidence that platforms will act when things go wrong.
Our view
We do not believe that removing children from digital spaces is the answer.
Proposals such as a blanket ban on social media for children risk missing the underlying issues. They focus on children’s access, rather than on the safety of the systems children are being asked to navigate.
Instead, we believe there needs to be a fundamental shift in where responsibility sits. Children, parents and schools are too often expected to manage risks that are built into the design of digital platforms. This is neither fair nor effective.
Technology companies must take far greater responsibility for the safety of the environments they create. Access to child users should not be automatic, it should be conditional and earned by demonstrating that platforms are safe, age-appropriate and designed with children’s wellbeing at their core.
A wider digital ecosystem
Children’s experiences show clearly that risks are not limited to social media.
They occur across a wide and increasingly blurred digital landscape, including gaming platforms, messaging services and other interactive spaces. Any policy response that focuses too narrowly on individual platforms risks being ineffective and quickly out of date. We need an approach that reflects the full range of digital environments children use.
What needs to change
To make the online world safer for children, action is needed across the system. This includes:
- Design platforms to be safe from the start: Require companies to build safety into their services by design, rather than responding after harm occurs.
- Use and enforce age limits and feature restrictions: Apply minimum age requirements and restrict higher-risk features across platforms but ensure these are properly enforced so they cannot be easily bypassed or shift harm elsewhere.
- Set and enforce stronger rules: Introduce clear, mandatory safety standards for platforms and enforce them properly, including strong penalties and accountability for companies and, where necessary, their senior leaders.
- Support children to have a healthier balance: Help children develop a healthier balance between online and offline life, supported by better guidance, digital skills and improved access to safe opportunities in their communities.
Our priority
Our priority is clear:
Children should be able to benefit from being online without being exposed to unnecessary harm. That means creating a digital environment that is safe, accountable and grounded in children’s rights, not one where children are expected to manage risk on their own. Children do not want to be excluded from digital life. They want to be able to take part safely.