Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government who is conducting their study on the effects of smartphone and social media use on children, announced on 20 November, and what are its terms of reference.

The study is being conducted by the University of Cambridge but includes a wider consortium of experts from a range of universities. The project team will be led by Dr Amy Orben, a Programme Leader at the University of Cambridge.

The study’s objectives are to review existing research on the impact of social media and smartphones on children’s developmental outcomes, evaluate methodologies to develop causal evidence on the topic and to recommend an approach to produce causal evidence in the next 2-3 years.