According to a 15 April 2026 Downing Street press release, the Prime Minister has called senior representatives from Meta, Snap, Google (YouTube), TikTok and X to Downing Street to press them on online harms affecting children. The meeting comes midway through the government’s wider consultation on children’s digital wellbeing and is being presented as a prelude to post-consultation action, not the end of the process. (gov.uk) Downing Street’s position is direct. The Prime Minister says the question is no longer whether government will intervene, but what form that intervention should take once evidence from parents, young people, schools and industry has been gathered. (gov.uk)
In the government’s account, ministers used the meeting to set out the principles they expect platforms to work to and to press for specific answers on how children are being protected online. The April press release says some companies have already introduced safeguards such as disabling autoplay for children, adding screen-time controls and using curfews, but it also makes clear that ministers do not regard those steps as sufficient on their own. (gov.uk) For platforms, the immediate message is regulatory rather than symbolic. The government is asking companies to explain what they are doing now on platform design, parental tools and product controls, while signalling that further statutory duties or age-based restrictions remain under consideration. (gov.uk)
The consultation at the centre of this process, Growing up in the online world, was published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 2 March 2026 and closes on 26 May 2026, with a government response due in summer 2026. GOV.UK says the exercise builds on the Online Safety Act 2023 and asks whether additional measures are needed beyond the existing framework. (gov.uk) The consultation paper ranges well beyond content moderation. It asks about a minimum age for social media use, restrictions on design features linked to excessive use such as infinite scrolling and autoplay, whether the digital age of consent should be raised, how age assurance should work, whether school mobile phone guidance should become statutory, and what extra safeguards may be needed around AI chatbots used by children and young people. (gov.uk)
Ministers are also emphasising participation. The 15 April Downing Street release says the consultation had already received more than 45,000 responses by the halfway point, with almost 6,000 young people taking part and more than 80 organisations, including schools, charities and community groups, involved in engagement sessions with ministers and officials. Dedicated consultation routes have also been published for parents and carers and for children and young people aged 10 to 21. (gov.uk) That matters because the final package has not yet been settled. The government is still gathering evidence on which interventions are workable, how they should be enforced, and where responsibilities should sit between platforms, parents, schools and regulators. (gov.uk)
The policy significance lies in the legislative route the government is preparing. GOV.UK states that on 16 February 2026 the Prime Minister announced new powers intended to let ministers act quickly after the consultation, without waiting for a fresh round of primary legislation. The government’s 15 February announcement said those powers would be designed to support action within months rather than years. (gov.uk) Parliamentary documents show the type of model ministers have in view. Notes to the 15 February announcement say new powers would be tabled in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and that eventual measures would be subject to an affirmative House of Commons vote. Explanatory notes to Lords amendments to that Bill then set out one proposed route: regulations requiring regulated user-to-user services to stop under-16s becoming users through highly effective age assurance, with Ofcom enforcing those regulations under Part 7 of the Online Safety Act 2023. That does not settle the final policy, but it does show how consultation findings could become enforceable platform duties. (gov.uk)
The immediate timetable is now clear. The consultation closes on 26 May 2026, the government says it will publish its response in summer 2026, and Downing Street is using the remaining weeks to increase pressure on the largest platforms while still inviting parents and young people to submit evidence. (gov.uk) For readers tracking the policy, this is no longer only a discussion about voluntary platform standards. Read together, the government documents describe a pathway from consultation, to regulation-making powers, to Ofcom-backed enforcement if ministers decide that stronger intervention is justified. (gov.uk)