Thank you to all those who have contacted me as part of the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign.

I share your concerns about online safety and I am open-minded as to what further measures might need to be taken.

I agree that we should firstly make sure the powers that already exist are in place as quickly as possible. It has taken five years for the Online Safety Act to become law, which is far too long.

It was welcome to see Ofcom’s new proposals for keeping children safe online announced earlier this month, including strong age checks and tackling algorithms which target young minds.

These protections should have been in place years ago. I have supported repeated calls on the Government to take tougher action and to stop the crucial protections in the Online Safety Act being delayed.

The Government should now be working with the families who have tragically lost teenagers from online activity and quickly issue a statement of strategic priorities for Ofcom, to force it to prioritise keeping up with new dangers.

We also need to ensure our children and young people have the mental health support they need, with a specialist mental health professional at school and an open access mental health hub in every community.

To tackle the influence of online misogyny, we should be preventing algorithms from promoting harmful content online, and should make tackling misogyny a key part of school accountability. Digital literacy should be embedded in the curriculum so that young people are given the critical tools they need to deal with online hate and misinformation. We also need to widen the curriculum in schools, to help get more art, music, drama and sport into children’s lives.

Outside of school, there needs to be greater and more effective investment in youth services. I support the idea of developing a national network of Young Futures hubs to bring local services together, deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges and, where appropriate, deliver universal youth provision.

Britain’s young people deserve the best start in life. For children to be healthy and happy should not be a ‘nice to have’, but a basic right.

I will continue to monitor any developments on the Government’s proposed consultation, the work of Ofcom, and keep an open mind on what policies are needed to better protect children and young people.

Thank you again to all those who have contacted me.