Steroid Drugs: Young People

Following the national consultation, Growing up in the Online World, the Government is banning social media companies from offering their services to children under 16 years old. We will take the same approach as Australia. This will capture user-to-user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction, including platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X.

The ban will reduce children’s exposure to all potentially harmful content which can be viewed via social media platforms, including online advertising and the promotion of steroid drugs like selective androgen receptor modulators and image and performance enhancing drugs.

The full Government response to the consultation will be published in July, setting out further measures we are taking to keep children safe online. One of the many areas explored through the consultation was restricting the ability of services to advertise to children. The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Science and Technology to ensure policy decisions are informed by meaningful consideration of potential public health impacts.

In addition, the Men’s Health Strategy recognises the role that the media plays in shaping how men in particular interpret health information. The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to identify ways to build media literacy skills in men to help them critically assess health information and protect against misinformation that harms health.