Member

38X: At the end of subsection (2) insert— “214B Use of section 214A powers in relation to regulated user-to-user services (1) The Secretary of State must make regulations under section 214A(1)(a) requiring providers of specified regulated user-to-user services to use highly-effective age assurance measures and reasonable anti-circumvention measures to prevent access by children in the United Kingdom under the age of 16 to those services which they provide, or to specified features or functionalities of such services. (2) A draft of the first such regulations must be laid before each House of Parliament within eight months of the day on which the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 is passed. (3) Subject to approval by a resolution of each House of Parliament, the first such regulations must be brought into effect within one year of the day on which the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 is passed. (4) When making the regulations described at subsection (1), the Secretary of State must— (a) seek to protect children under the age of 16 from any general or specific characteristics of those services, features or functionalities which it is reasonable to believe, having regard to any advice provided for that purpose by relevant experts— (i) are likely to cause, encourage or facilitate compulsive, obsessive, addictive or other unhealthy behaviours among children, (ii) could expose children to risks of serious harm, manipulation or exploitation, (iii) could expose children to illegal content or primary priority content, or (iv) could expose children to serious loss of privacy or to contact from strangers; (b) have regard to the desirability of facilitating studies by charities and independent researchers of the safety and appropriateness for children of the characteristics of regulated user-to-user services; (c) make any necessary provisions or consequential amendments to ensure that— (i) the duties on the providers of regulated user-to-user services under those regulations are enforceable requirements for the purposes of section 131 and Part 7 of this Act, and (ii) section 49 (relationship between duties and codes of practice) of this Act does not apply to those duties. (5) In this section, a “relevant expert” means OFCOM, the Children’s Commissioner, any of the Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom, the Medical Royal Colleges, and any other persons from whom the Secretary of State considers it appropriate to seek relevant expert advice or input. 214C Supporting children’s understanding of user-to-user services The Secretary of State must take action to ensure that, effective for the academic year commencing in September 2027, the national curriculum contains age-appropriate material to explain the reasons for children under the age of 16 being prevented from accessing different kinds of regulated user-to-user services, or features or functionalities of such services, including— (a) the implications for children’s wellbeing of their use of or exposure to services with characteristics of the kind described in subsection 214B(4)(a), and (b) the range of business models, methods and motivations for and the implications of the online collection and processing of children’s data.””