The Government has handed parents a toolkit for discussing harmful online content with children over the Easter holidays, apparently deciding that the internet’s most dangerous feature is still the moment someone asks a teenager what they have been watching.
On 3 April 2026, ministers pointed families towards the free ‘You Won’t Know until You Ask’ campaign, which offers conversation starters and practical guidance. The announcement also pointed to a consultation on children’s online safety, including possible minimum age limits for social media, overnight curfews on addictive features and tighter restrictions on AI chatbots used by young people.
It is a serious attempt to give parents something more useful than a concerned look and the phrase “when I was your age”. The tablet has therefore been issued with questions, prompts and the digital equivalent of a solicitor waiting outside the kitchen.
The Government said the consultation would remain open until 26 May and that new guidance covered healthy screen time for children under five. The announcement also cited more than 120,000 families visiting the campaign website since its launch, with thousands setting weekly reminders to ask children what they are seeing online. At last, a family conversation has acquired the administrative structure of a minor national infrastructure project.
This creates a beautifully modern division of labour. Technology companies are expected to make their platforms safer. Ministers are expected to regulate them. Parents are expected to conduct a calm inquiry over dinner without sounding as though they have just discovered Wi Fi and are demanding to see the router.
The campaign’s central advice is refreshingly simple. Ask what children are seeing. Keep the conversation open. Avoid turning every answer into a tribunal. The tablet has accepted these principles, although it has requested that “How did you end up on that?” be removed from the list of neutral opening questions, along with “Who sent it?” and “Why is your screen glowing at midnight?”
The consultation is not a new law, and the guidance cannot make a difficult conversation painless merely by placing it in a downloadable document. It does recognise that families need support while platforms are being asked to shoulder more responsibility. Even the device understands the arrangement. It is apparently both the evidence locker and the suspect.
For now, the nation’s tablets remain glowing quietly in the corner while adults attempt a gentle discussion about online harms. The only missing safeguard is a government tool explaining how to stop a child answering every question with “It was just a meme”. That consultation may need to close later than 26 May.
Source: GOV.UK.
