Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will have conversations with colleagues in the [i] Department for Culture and Media and Sport and [ii] Department for Science and Technology about the impact of social media content on the use of IPEDs and SARMs amongst young people.

The Government recognises the mental and physical health risks of young people taking steroids. This Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever and to exploring options, through the cross-government National Youth Strategy, to improve young people’s access to accurate health information, both online and offline.

While no assessment has currently been made about the reasons for the use of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) and selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) amongst young people. Treatment for IPED or steroid use within drug and alcohol treatment services is available, depending on local commissioning arrangements. The Government also runs Talk to FRANK, a drug and alcohol information and advice service for young people, parents and others concerned about drug use. The website includes information on the mental and physical health risks of steroid use and is updated regularly. More information is available at the following link:

https://www.talktofrank.com/

The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on its consultation, ‘Growing up in the online world’, which closes on 26 May 2026. This consultation will help inform future policy to better protect children’s health and wellbeing and ensure that digital platforms play their part in promoting safe and healthy online experiences.

We are also taking a range of actions to improve men’s health literacy, as set out in the Men’s Health Strategy. These include:

• ensuring health literacy improvements are embedded at community level;
• building the evidence base on health literacy in men;
• working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; and
• identifying ways to build media literacy skills in men to help them critically assess health information and protect against misinformation that harms health.