The UK Just Asked the Public What Growing Up Online Should Look Like
The UK Just Asked the Public What Growing Up Online Should Look Like
The UK government closed a three-month public consultation on 26 May 2026 about how digital life affects children — and it drew an unusually large response from schools, tech companies, charities, and everyday people. Gov.uk has now published the numbers. The government asked a straightforward set of questions: What risks do children face online? What responsibilities should tech platforms have? And — this part is new — what rules should apply specifically to artificial intelligence systems?
The consultation, titled Growing up in the online world, started on 2 March 2026. That final question about AI marked a shift. Previous UK government conversations about digital safety had focused on social media and the algorithms that decide what content you see. This time, the government treated AI as its own separate concern for children, not just another piece of the social media problem.
Global Policy Watch noted at the time that the consultation asked what new rules AI companies should follow. This puts the UK in step with the EU, which is already writing its own strict rules about AI and children, and with Ofcom — the UK's regulator for online platforms.
What the government is actually deciding
Right now, Ofcom handles most of the work: checking that platforms understand their risks, checking ages of users, and making sure harmful content gets removed. But this broad consultation suggests ministers are wondering whether the existing rules go far enough — whether they need to be tougher about what counts as harm, or whether they need brand-new rules for AI systems that nobody expected when the current laws were written three years ago. The government will read through all the responses and use them to decide what comes next.
These responses do not force the government's hand, but thousands of responses from schools, parents' groups, and tech experts add real political weight. When children's safety is on the line, ministers take notice.
Nobody knows exactly when the government will announce what it plans to do. There is no official timeline yet. Given how many responses came in and how complicated the AI question is, a policy statement before the end of 2026 could happen — but it is just as possible the government will take six to twelve months to work through everything. When big American tech companies start lobbying against new rules, those timelines tend to stretch longer.
The bigger picture
There is something worth noticing in the timing. At the same moment the government is asking what children are becoming in digital spaces, playwright James Graham — whose work has often examined what it means to be English — is adapting his play Dear England for BBC television. The original stage play looked at English identity through the country's recent football history. On television, it will reach far more people than could fit in a theatre.
Neither the government consultation nor the television adaptation answers the question directly, but both are circling the same underlying worry: what keeps a society connected when the places where people meet — both online and in the physical world — are under so much strain? It is not a question data can settle.
What to watch for next
The thing that matters most now is what the government actually does with all those responses. Keep an eye on three things: whether the government publishes an official reply to the consultation, whether the regulator Ofcom updates its guidance to address AI specifically, and whether parliament's next session includes a new law focused on children's digital safety. The consultation itself is finished. What it produces is still unknown.
