As a member of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges the Faculty of Public Health supports calls from senior medical leaders across the UK to recognise risks posed by children’s mobile phone use and their exposure to harmful online content as a serious public health emergency.
Following a recent meeting of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, clinicians from across the NHS reported a rising number of cases where children’s health and wellbeing are being affected by excessive screen time and damaging digital content.
At this meeting, more than 20 senior health leaders shared powerful testimonies about the extent and severity of the harms they are seeing, emphasising the need for urgent action.
In response to these concerns, the Academy has written to ministers to highlight the scale of the problem and the urgent need for stronger national safeguards.
This comes at a time when the government is preparing to consult on proposals to restrict social media use among under‑16s. A consultation is expected to be launched this week.
FPH supports these concerns and joins the call for stronger protections to reduce children’s exposure to harmful online content and better safeguard their health.
