The online world can feel overwhelming to navigate as a parent or carer, with the increase of AI-generated content, the multitude of social media and messaging platforms and the risk of exposure to explicit content.
The government is consulting on what changes it could make to ensure that young people are being kept safe online and that their wellbeing is prioritised. They are welcoming parents’ and carers’ views as part of this consultation, which closes on 26 May 2026.
Our public policy advisor Mark Gilmore has written about some of the risks social media can cause to teenagers. The consultation covers some of the other areas where young people are most at risk on the internet. This includes questions about AI chatbots, ‘risky’ functionalities on platforms and age assurance checks. Below is an explanation of some of the areas covered by the consultation, to help inform your answers.
AI chatbots
Whilst generative AI can be used to aid learning, such as developing interactive revision resources, it can also be used to generate harmful or explicit content. The Centre for Social Justice’s Lost Boys: Boyhood report highlighted the risks of generative AI, where, with minimal prompting, the generative AI model created “highly explicit erotica”, without any age verification. A 2025 report on AI found that that children were generating deep-fake explicit content of their peers, and that children were at risk of sharing highly sensitive information with chatbots due to the way they produce human-like responses.
Restricting services based on ‘risky’ functionalities
‘Risky’ functionalities include features such as live-streaming, location-sharing, disappearing messages, the ability to send and receive images and videos containing nudity, and stranger-pairing. While some of these features can promote more natural, informal conversation, they also produce risks of coercion, grooming and sextortion. A 2018 survey found that 6% of children who had live-streamed had been requested to undress. A 2024 report found that 66% of children aged 8 – 18 interact with unknown people online daily, mostly through gaming platforms and social media. Some of these features are partially covered in the Online Safety Act, but it often requires platforms to assess and mitigate risks as they see proportionate.
Harmful content
The 2025 Children’s Commissioner report found that the average age that children were exposed to pornography online is 13, with 27% of respondents having seen online pornography by the age of 11. 59% of children responded that they had seen pornography online by accident, and the most common platform where children encountered pornography was X, not dedicated pornography sites. Eight out of the ten top platforms where children had seen pornography were social media/networking sites, not pornography sites. Whilst social media platforms are required to remove this content under the Online Safety Act, this requires the platform to comply with the regulations. Social media can often be the place where children are first exposed to harmful, explicit and damaging content and views.
Age assurance
An important aspect the consultation touches upon is the area of age assurance, and whether “adults should complete age checks more often, if it means children are safer online”. This includes requiring age checks to access virtual private networks (VPNs) as these tools can be used to circumvent age-restricted content. VPNs can be used for legitimate reasons, such as ensuring security on public networks, protecting from data breaches and enabling internet freedom in areas of censorship. Whilst VPNs are often used to protect privacy online, a 2025 survey by Childnet found that 23% of children use VPNs.
The internet and social media are tools that can be used for good by children, to foster creativity, act as a learning aid and enable communication with friends. On the other hand, these same tools can expose children to harmful and illegal content or become a stand-in for real life interactions. As Christians, we are to be sanctified and transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2) and avoid negative influences (1 Corinthians 15:33), and we should want the same for our children.
We will be responding to the full consultation as the Evangelical Alliance, and we encourage you to respond to the parents and carers survey.
