More than 800,000 children aged three to five in the UK are engaging with social media platforms, according to a new analysis that has prompted warnings from a former education minister.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) applied the latest population data to previous research by Ofcom, which found that almost four in 10 parents of three to five-year-olds reported their child using at least one social media app or site. With roughly 2.2 million children in this age group as of 2024, the CSJ estimates that 814,000 are now active on such platforms.
Lord Nash, a former education minister, described the findings as “deeply alarming”. He said: “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.” He called for a major public health campaign and legislation to raise the age limit for social media to 16, while holding tech companies accountable.
The warning comes as Australia prepares to enforce a world-first law from 10 December requiring social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from having accounts. In the UK, campaigners, including the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, have been pressing for stronger measures to curb phone use in schools. The government, however, maintains that schools already have the power to ban phones and that it supports headteachers in taking necessary action.
The CSJ is advocating for a ban on smartphones in all schools to “break the 24-hour cycle of phone use”, and for a public health campaign to highlight the harms of social media. Health Secretary Wes Streeting recently voiced concerns about “the mind-numbing impact of doomscrolling on social media on young minds and our neurodevelopment”.
