The Government’s consultation on whether to ban children from social media is facing a legal challenge after two fathers launched proceedings claiming the process requires parents and children to share their personal data with the very technology companies under scrutiny in the review.
Harry Amies and Pete Montgomery have instructed London law firm Conrathe Gardner LLP to send a formal pre-action letter to ministers, warning that a judicial review will be filed in the High Court unless urgent changes are made within 14 days. The challenge targets the national consultation titled “Growing Up in an Online World,” launched this month by Liz Kendall’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which seeks public views on protecting children online — including the question of whether under-16s should be banned from social media entirely.
The legal case centres on the mechanics of the consultation itself. Two of the three surveys — one aimed at parents and carers of children under 21, and one designed for children and young people aged between 10 and 21 — are run by commercial research company Savanta Group Limited. Solicitor Paul Conrathe argues that participants who click “start survey” are required to accept Savanta’s privacy policy, which permits personal data to be shared with third-party companies providing analytics or digital services, including Google, Meta and LinkedIn.
The legal letter describes this as a “remarkable and unlawful decision,” arguing the arrangement effectively forces families to hand over personal information to social media companies as a condition of participating in a government consultation about regulating those same companies. Lawyers for the parents say this creates an unfair barrier to participation and undermines the fundamental principle that government consultations must be conducted fairly.
Amies, who is from the online child protection group Unplug.Scot, said he was shocked when he discovered the privacy terms. “The discovery that not only parents’ but children’s personal responses to the consultation may be shared with Meta and Google, without their explicit consent or knowledge, represents an extraordinary corruption of UK democratic process,” he said, calling for the consultation to be suspended.
The claimants have demanded the release of all communications between ministers and Savanta regarding the privacy policy, as well as formal assurances that no personal data gathered during the consultation will be passed to third parties. If those demands are not met within the 14-day window, a judicial review claim will be filed.
The wider question of how to restrict children’s access to social media remains unresolved. Parliament is still debating the issue as part of scrutiny of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, with ministers currently leaning toward flexible powers that could include curfews, time limits and the disabling of features such as infinite scrolling and autoplay, rather than an outright ban.
Enforcement of any restrictions also remains contentious, with experts warning that age verification could require identity documents or biometric checks, and that determined teenagers could bypass any ban using virtual private networks. Questions also persist over which platforms would fall within the scope of any restriction — whether limited to major apps such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, or extended to messaging services, gaming platforms and AI chatbots.
The consultation is due to run until 26 May, with a government decision on tougher restrictions expected later this year.
