Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has held discussions with social media companies on content promoting anabolic steroid use and extreme body image ideals to young men.

The Department has not held discussions with social media companies on content promoting anabolic steroid use and extreme body image ideals to young men.

However, in November 2025, the Department launched England’s first ever Men’s Health Strategy which sets out a bold vision to improve the health and wellbeing of all men and boys. The strategy recognises the role that the media plays in shaping how men interpret health information and commits to identify ways to build media literacy skills in men to help them critically assess health information and protect against misinformation that harms health.

More broadly, under the Online Safety Act, providers must take proportionate steps to reduce the risk of their services being used to facilitate illegal activity, including the unlawful supply of controlled drugs such as anabolic steroids.

The Government also supports clean competition in sport. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport supports UK Anti-Doping and UK Sport in their efforts to protect clean sport and educate athletes on the risks of performance-enhancing drugs.