Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will take steps to regulate smartphone use for children.

In February 2024, the department published non-statutory guidance for schools on how to develop, implement and maintain a policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones throughout the school day. As has been the longstanding policy of successive governments, headteachers remain responsible for deciding how they choose to implement this policy.

The Online Safety Act protects children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content and ensures that technology companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users, particularly children.