Internet: Education
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to secure continued access to online educational content and learning resources for children under the age of 16; whether her Department has assessed the extent to which pupils use social media platforms for educational purposes, including revision, independent study and exam preparation; what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential effect of a social media ban on access to platforms for pupils preparing for GCSE and other public examinations; whether consideration has been given to exemptions or alternative arrangements for educational content hosted on platforms that would otherwise be subject to age restrictions; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of these proposals on (a) pupils from lower-income households who rely on free online educational resources and (b) neurodivergent pupils who may benefit from video-based learning formats.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan
The government is clear that access to high-quality educational content is essential. We want to see more high-quality services designed specifically for young people.
Through the EdTech Testbed Programme the government are investing £24m to identify and test the impact of technology tools and resources, and have launched an innovative programme to develop safe, high quality AI tutoring tools. Oak National Academy provides free, national curriculum-aligned resources across all national curriculum subjects, and has a dedicated online pupil interface for access to curriculum resources, including lesson videos delivered by teachers and interactive quizzes.
Government has been clear that proposed restrictions will apply to social media services, with a narrowly defined list of exemptions including, for example, educational services.
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