B

Baroness Penn (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 18 December 2025

Debate

Preschool Children: Digital Technology

Contribution

My Lords, I thank the Minister for taking time to meet me and the noble Baroness, Lady Cass, last month to discuss this issue. The evidence shows that digital device use among early years children is growing rapidly, and education and health professionals, researchers and academics are deeply concerned about how this is leading to identifiable changes in behaviour, language development, social skills and mental and physical health. More than 40 members of the Digital Standards for Early Years Action Group wrote to the Government more than a year ago to call for action in this area, but there is nothing in the early years strategy, there is nothing in the early years foundation stage statutory framework and there is no public health information for family hubs, health visitors or GPs, so the digital action group wrote again to the Government last week to call for real action in this area. Will the Minister outline what further steps the Government are going to take to address this important issue?

More from Baroness Penn (Con)

Other recent Hansard contributions by the same speaker.

About Hansard

Hansard is the official verbatim record of proceedings in the UK Parliament. Every word spoken in the Commons and Lords is recorded and published — this page is a single contribution from that record.

Partner sites