http://www.healthprofessionalsforsaferscreens.org/

Health Professionals For Safer Screens, London (2026)

09/09/2026

As children return to school, nearly a quarter of secondary pupils are persistently absent. What is keeping them away?

New research from NFER suggests there is no simple answer. Persistent absence is complex, with pupil wellbeing, family circumstances, school experiences and access to support all potentially playing a part.

But one finding particularly caught our attention.

66% of parents and carers surveyed linked declining pupil wellbeing to increased mobile phone and social media use.

More than half (51%) identified poor wellbeing itself as a key factor behind rising absence, while pupils also highlighted online bullying as affecting both wellbeing and attendance.

These findings do not show that smartphones or social media cause persistent absence and NFER is careful not to make that claim. However, they do raise an important question.

When a child or young person is struggling with their wellbeing, disengaging from school or finding it increasingly difficult to attend, are we asking enough about what is happening in their digital life?

Online experiences don’t sit neatly apart from children’s “real” lives. They can intersect with sleep, relationships, mental health, bullying, learning and how children feel about themselves and school.

Significantly, NFER recommends that the Government monitor the impact of proposed social media restrictions for under-16s on school attendance.

For health professionals, understanding a child’s digital environment is becoming an increasingly important part of the wider clinical picture. Our free course, Screens, Their Content and Their Effect on Children, provides a practical, evidence-informed introduction to the impact of screens on children’s sleep, development and mental health and how to start these conversations in practice.

As a new school year begins, we take a closer look at the research and why digital wellbeing needs to be part of the wider conversation about persistent absence.

Read the full HPFSS blog via the link in our bio.

07/09/2026

Has your four or five-year-old just started Reception? There is something happening in their first six weeks of school that we think every parent should know about.

The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is a statutory assessment of early maths, literacy, communication and language and since September 2025, its delivery has been digital.

At HPFSS, we have serious concerns about introducing screen-based assessment at such a young age.

Many parents work hard to reduce unnecessary screen use at home, following guidance around healthy screen habits during these crucial early years. Yet within weeks of starting school, children are being asked to use a touchscreen as part of a statutory assessment.

Sandy Chappell, Speech and Language Therapist and valued HPFSS member, explains why she is concerned and what parents need to know.

A few important facts:

• The RBA takes place within the first six weeks of Reception, when many children are just four.
• It measures early language, literacy and maths skills.
• It is digital by default, with the teacher using one device and the child responding on a touchscreen tablet.
• Teachers are not permitted to help, prompt or guide a child through the assessment.
• Recent observational research found signs of stress and anxiety in every child observed during the assessment.
• The results are not shared with parents or used by the school to support the individual child. The data provides a baseline against which future progress is measured nationally.
• Parents cannot opt their child out altogether, but can ask their school for the non-digital version, using physical resources rather than a touchscreen.

For children only just beginning school, parents should know how this assessment is carried out, why the data is collected and what their options are.

SafeScreens has a template for parents concerned about the digital RBA via the link in their bio, while HPFSS evidence-informed screen-time guidance is available via ours.

Please share with families of children who have just started Reception. This is happening now and many parents simply don’t know about it.

03/09/2026

75,491 children aged 6–17 attended A&E in England with a recorded mental health concern in 2025.

New analysis published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health this week shows mental health-related Emergency Department attendances have risen 36% since 2019.

Among children aged just 6–9, the increase was 62%.

There is no single cause of the children’s mental health crisis. But as children’s lives become increasingly entwined with the digital world, understanding that environment needs to form part of the clinical picture.

RCPCH’s State of Child Health 2026 identifies online harms as an increasingly pervasive and under-reported contributing factor to poor mental health. Separate RCPCH evidence from paediatricians has highlighted concerns including anxiety, low mood, self-harm and reduced self-worth in relation to children and young people’s use of social media.

So when a child or young person presents with anxiety, low mood, poor self-esteem or other mental health concerns, are we asking enough about their digital lives?

Not because every mental health difficulty can be attributed to screens or social media it cannot but because health professionals need the knowledge and confidence to recognise when a child’s digital environment may be relevant and to ask the right questions.

This is why digital health needs to become part of everyday clinical practice.

HPFSS has developed a free six-module educational programme for health professionals, Screens, Their Content and Their Effect on Children.

The programme explores evidence on sleep, development, mood and mental health, neurodivergence, and more, alongside practical approaches you can incorporate into clinical practice.

Module 4 focuses specifically on Mood & Mental Health.
If you are a health professional working with children and young people, sign up for free via the link in our bio.

Please share the programme with your colleagues. We want to help ensure that understanding children’s digital lives becomes part of everyday healthcare.

26/08/2026

“Despicable.”

Dr Becky Foljambe’s response when LBC presenter Tom Swarbrick put to her one of the allegations now being heard in court: that Meta researched how children’s brains respond to online stimuli and tracked young people’s interactions on its platforms.

And today, the scrutiny continues.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri is giving evidence in the landmark US trial brought by 29 states against Meta over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to addict young users, while failing to adequately protect their safety and privacy. Meta denies the allegations.

For Health Professionals for Safer Screens, this case matters not simply because of the potential financial penalties for harms already done, but because of what could happen next.

As Becky told Tom on LBC:
“This is why this lawsuit is important. Because it’s not just seeking billions of dollars in damages for harms done already, but it’s demanding future changes to these platforms.”

When asked whether it would be a bad thing if the financial consequences ultimately put Meta out of business, Becky did not hesitate:

“It would be great. They deserve to go bust. We need to wipe the slate clean here and start designing platforms with features that do not harm our children.”

Behind the court cases, the evidence and the extraordinary sums of money are children and families. Becky spoke powerfully of bereaved parents and of families whose children have struggled with eating disorders, self-harm and other serious harms in the context of social media.

This is why accountability matters.

And why the design of the platforms themselves, not simply how children are expected to use them, must be part of the conversation.

🎥 Dr Becky Foljambe, GP and Founder of Health Professionals for Safer Screens, speaking to Tom Swarbrick on LBC.

25/08/2026

As Meta faces mounting legal action in the US over allegations that its platforms were knowingly designed in ways that harm and addict children, 29 states are now pursuing the tech giant, putting not only past harms, but the way these platforms are designed and regulated, firmly under scrutiny.

Writing in The Irish Times this week, Professor Matthew Sadlier, President of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), UCD School of Medicine and HPFSS member, argues that the case exposes a much wider problem:

“Social media regulation is little more than a paper tiger.”

While traditional broadcasters and cinemas must meet standards before content reaches children, Matthew points out that social media regulation remains largely retrospective. Harmful content is seen first, sometimes hundreds or thousands of times and only then is a child expected to report it.

As he writes:
“Unlike traditional media, the regulations regarding social media are largely retrospective rather than prospective.”

Matthew points to the recent New Mexico case against Meta, where the court imposed “tangible safety restrictions not on content but on the function of the platform.”

That distinction is critical. Protecting children cannot depend on them encountering harmful content, recognising it, reporting it and then waiting for a platform to act.

His conclusion is a powerful one:
“At least somewhere there are regulators not afraid to challenge corporate business models.”

25/08/2026

WE NEED YOUR HELP. Please sign and share.

With a new Education Secretary, Lucy Powell MP, and a new Health Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, we want to ensure that the physical and developmental health impacts of increasing screen-based learning and EdTech use in our classrooms are firmly on their agenda.

A group of GPs, ophthalmologists, audiologists, paediatricians, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and other clinicians has drafted an open letter raising serious concerns about the lack of health-related scrutiny surrounding EdTech used by children every day.

The letter highlights concerns across three key areas:

Speech and language: screen-based 1:1 learning may displace the face-to-face interaction young children need for language development, at a time when more than two million UK children are struggling with speech and language.

Eyesight: childhood myopia is rising globally and in the UK, with research linking increased digital screen time with increased odds of myopia.

Children with SEN: who are often disproportionately steered towards screen-based learning at precisely the time they may need more careful supervision of, and caution around, their screen exposure.

As the letter warns:

“Every year we delay, we will see more children in our clinics who did not need to be there.”

We are asking health professionals to add their names before the letter is sent to the Department for Education.

If you are a clinician, please sign by Monday 31st August.

🔗 Link in bio

Please share this post with colleagues and across your professional networks. We want to make sure this message is heard.

23/08/2026

This could be the court case that changes social media for children.

Last week, Meta went on trial in California in a landmark case that could have profound implications for how social media platforms are designed for and held accountable for their impact on children.

Dr Becky Foljambe, GP and founder of Health Professionals for Safer Screens, joined Tom Swarbrick on LBC to discuss why this case matters, what it could expose and what it could mean for the future of children’s health and safety online.

A bipartisan coalition of US states has accused Meta of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to keep children and teenagers engaged, while failing to adequately protect them and improperly collecting data from children under 13.

Meta denies the allegations and says it has invested extensively in tools and safeguards to protect young people.

But behind the court case, the corporate documents and the enormous sums of money involved are children and families.

Bereaved parents have been among those fighting for greater accountability from social media companies, sharing devastating experiences and asking difficult questions about what platforms knew about risks to young users and whether enough was done to protect them.

For HPFSS, this case is about far more than the potential financial cost to Meta.

It is about what happens next.

Could it change the way platforms are allowed to capture and hold children’s attention? Could it lead to stronger age protections and safer design? And could it finally shift more responsibility away from parents and children and onto the companies creating these products?

As Becky notes, health professionals will continue to speak up for children and families.

Decisions being made now could help shape the digital world the next generation grows up in.

We’ll be watching this case closely.

17/08/2026

🎒 Is your child starting Reception this September?

The next few weeks are a wonderful opportunity to help prepare them for school but the best preparation might be much simpler than you think.

As Speech & Language Therapist and valued HPFSS member Sandy Chappell explains, one of the strongest predictors of how well children learn, make friends and settle into school is good speech and language.

You don’t need expensive resources, educational apps or hours of structured activities.

The most powerful way to support your child’s speech and language development is through everyday conversation.

📖 Read a story together. 🎵 Sing songs and nursery rhymes. 🚗 Chat in the car. 🛒 Talk about what you can see while you’re shopping. 🍽️ Enjoy conversations at mealtimes. 🧺 Let them help with simple jobs around the house.

These everyday interactions build vocabulary, communication skills, confidence and connection, giving children the foundations they need not just for learning, but for thriving at school.

That’s why we created Moments That Matter, our free guide for parents of young children.

Written by healthcare professionals, it combines the latest evidence with practical, realistic ideas to help support children’s speech, language, development and wellbeing through the small moments that happen every day.

As Sandy reminds us, every conversation makes a difference. Every book you read, every song you sing and every game you play helps build your child’s brain.

📥 Download your free copy of Moments That Matter via the link in our bio.

💛 If you know a family with a child starting school this September, please share this post. Those everyday moments really do matter.

12/08/2026

Government guidance is changing. The evidence continues to grow. Clinical practice needs to keep pace.
Healthcare professionals are increasingly recognising that a child’s digital environment can influence their sleep, development, mental health and overall wellbeing. Yet many clinicians have had little formal training in understanding these issues or incorporating conversations about screen use into everyday clinical practice.
That’s why Health Professionals for Safer Screens developed ‘Screens, Their Content and Their Effect on Children ‘ a free educational programme created by Dr Jennifer Lee and Dr Caspar Wood.

Across six concise, on-demand modules, leading clinicians and researchers explore the evidence linking screen use to children’s health, covering:

🛏️ Sleep 🧠 Child development 💙 Mental health 🌱 Neurodivergence 🩺 Practical assessment tools and conversations for use in everyday consultations

Each bite-sized module takes around 15 minutes to complete, making it easy to fit around busy clinical practice while building confidence in this rapidly evolving area of child health.

Here’s what one clinician had to say after completing the course:

The course was very helpful in understanding the significant impact that screens have on young people. I was particularly fascinated to learn about the link between screen use and certain metabolic changes and associated risks. I found the course to be very well structured, and I feel that I learned a great deal in a very short amount of time, approximately one hour.”
Dr Andreea-Ramona Dumitrașcu, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Whether you’re a GP, paediatrician, psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse, allied health professional, health visitor, therapist or medical student, this free course will give you practical, evidence-informed knowledge to help you incorporate discussions about children’s screen use into routine clinical care.

Every clinician routinely asks about sleep, diet and exercise. As the evidence continues to grow, it’s time to put children’s digital health on the clinical radar too.

🔗 Access the free course via the link in our bio.

09/08/2026

📚 This Book Lovers Day, we’re celebrating a book that could help shape a child’s future.

The stories we read, the conversations we have and the moments we spend together are some of the most powerful gifts we can give our children.

That’s why we created Moments That Matter, a free guide to help parents navigate one of the biggest challenges of modern childhood: raising young children in a world full of screens.

This isn’t a book about guilt.
It’s a book about understanding.

Written by healthcare professionals, Moments That Matter brings together the latest evidence on children’s screen use with compassionate, practical advice that parents can use every day.

Inside you’ll discover: 📖 Why the early years matter so much for children’s development. 💛 How screens can affect sleep, speech and language, emotional wellbeing and family connection. ✨ Simple, realistic swaps that help replace screen time with more play, conversation, reading and shared experiences. 🌼 Practical tools to help parents feel informed, confident and supported not judged.

As Dr Becky Foljambe writes in her introduction:

“You don’t need more guilt. You deserve honest, supportive information to help you make the best choices for your family.”

That is exactly why Moments That Matter was written.
We’re incredibly proud that this free guide has been endorsed by Hugh Grant, Sophie Winkleman, Jonathan Haidt, Jo Frost, Justine Roberts, Charlie Brooks and Tim Arnold, who all recognise the importance of giving parents trusted information and practical ways to put connection back at the heart of childhood.

❤️ If you’re a parent, grandparent, teacher, healthcare professional or simply someone who cares about children, we’d love you to download your free copy.

And if you believe every family deserves access to this information, please share this post.

One share could introduce another parent to simple ideas that help create more conversations, more laughter, more stories and more Moments That Matter.

📥 Download your free copy via the link in our bio.

Health Professionals For Safer Screens

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