- Rise of estimated 220,000 users under five in 2024 compared to previous year
- Growing evidence screen time causes increased anxiety and sleep disturbances
- Former schools minister and Labour MPs to debate outright ban on social media for under-16s
Data from Ofcom found that 37 per cent of parents of three to five-year-olds say their child uses at least one social media app or site, up from to 29 per cent in 2023.
Research from Ofcom found that almost one in five (19 per cent) children aged three to five use social media independently, while 40 per cent of children under 13 have a social media profile despite restrictions.
One in four 8 to 9-year-olds who game online report interacting with unknown individuals. Parental concerns remain high, with three in four worried about exposure to age-inappropriate content.
Our landmark report, Change the Prescription, highlighted the harm of exposure to social media at the stage when children’s speech, sleep, attention and emotional development are most vulnerable to disruption.
We are concerned about rising anxiety and identity-based distress linked to persistent stimulation from screens, with schools reporting declining attention and behaviour linked to online norms.
One teacher told a survey by the Kindred2 charity:
“I’ve got two children [in my class] who physically cannot sit on the carpet. They don’t have core strength. And when I went to visit one of the girls in July, she’d never been to a nursery, she’d been sat in a corner sofa on an iPad so she hasn’t developed her core strength and it’s really affecting her whole development.”
A New Zealand study published this year involving 6,000+ children aged 2-8 linked over 90 minutes of daily screen time to below-average performance in communication, writing and numeracy, with toddlers showing heightened behavioural issues and precursors to anxiety disorders.
In June 2025 an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was tabled by former schools minister, Lord Nash, proposing an outright ban on social media for under-16s.
This cited the pioneering model enacted in Australia in September 2025, which mandates strict age verification to block under-16 access and shield kids from addictive algorithms and toxic content.
Commenting on our new analysis, Lord Nash, former minister at the department for education, said:
“This research is deeply alarming. With hundreds of thousands of under-fives now on these platforms, children who haven’t yet learned to read, being fed content and algorithms designed to hook adults, should concern us all.
“We need a major public health campaign so parents better understand the damage being done, and legislation that raises the age limit for social media to 16 whilst holding tech giants to account when they fail to keep children off their platforms.”
The CSJ is calling for strengthen digital protections as part of a national prevention strategy, rather than leaving families and schools to cope alone.
We are calling for strengthen digital protections as part of a national prevention strategy, rather than leaving families and schools to cope alone.
Recommendations include:
- Raising the age of digital consent to 16 to prevent the harmful impact of algorithms and to reduce the addictive nature of social media.
- Banning smartphones in schools to break the 24 hour cycle of phone use.
- Launching a public health campaign to highlight the harms of social media.
To support this debate, the CSJ is hosting a Westminster panel event on Tuesday 2 December, bringing together senior figures from policing, health, Parliament and education to consider age limits, enforcement and parental support.
Event details
Hold the Phone: At what age should children be on social media?
Panellists: Jonathan Hinder MP, Lord Nash, Sophie Winkleman, Dr Rebecca Foljambe, Simon Bailey CBE
Date: Tuesday 2 December 2025
Time: Arrivals from 9:00am; panel discussion 9:30–10:30am
Venue: Kings Building, 16 Smith Square, Westminster, SW1P 3HQ
Contact: Liberty Morrow, Head of Events & Engagement
NOTES TO EDITOR
Methodology: The CSJ’s analysis is based on Ofcom’s Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes data which found that 37 per cent of parents of a 3-5-year-old reported that their child uses at least one social media app or site. Applied to UK population estimates for 3-5-year-olds (approximately 2.2 million) suggests there could be 814,000 users of social media aged 3 to 5.
