Graham delivers a powerful call to action in the House of Commons, supporting legislative bans on smartphones in schools and stricter controls on social media algorithms.
“It is a pleasure to take part in this debate. Social media is too often toxic in its effect on children, and parents who want to act fear isolating their children from their friends who are all online. Teachers, who want to protect children, spend their days investigating claims of cyber-bullying instead of boosting learning. Our children struggle to escape the clutches of algorithms that are designed to be addictive.
I am voting for Lords amendment 38 to save children from that toxic world and give them their childhood back. As has been said, this is a ‘fight for childhood.’ That is a slogan with real heart and substance. We need to support parents like John in Beverley, who tells me that his children feel constant pressure to be online and compare themselves endlessly with others. Those of us who are parents know that sometimes the kindest word we can say to a child is ‘no’—only to hear the inevitable response, ‘But Billy’s mum lets him do it.’ It is not fair that parents face that battle alone. This amendment sets a clear boundary so that parents are not isolated. When a child asks why they cannot go on Instagram, a parent can say: ‘Sorry, but that is the law.’
The relationship with technology is broken; teachers say it too. Hannah, a teacher from Hedon in my constituency, tells me she deals with the consequences of online harms every single day and fears the long-term impact on her pupils. Teachers are spending their time investigating what pupils have seen on Facebook or X when they should be teaching physics or art.
In too many schools, smartphones are everywhere. This means students are scrolling, not learning, and staff are policing, not teaching. That is why I also support amendment 106, which would require schools to ban smartphones during the school day. I do not accept the argument that passing this into law would have no effect. If we pass a law in primary legislation to ban smartphones in schools, I am confident that schools would follow it.
We are told we must wait for more consultations, but the arguments for delay do not stack up. This is not political point-scoring; children are suffering every single day that this goes on. We know it is harmful; we know it is damaging children’s futures and their mental health. We have parents in the Public Gallery who have lost their children as a result of this. How can we say we are just ‘being thorough’ when there are no clear questions left to answer?
There is literally no reason not to act. The problem we face involves not just social media, but the combination of the two: smartphones give children constant access, and social media gives them algorithms designed to keep them scrolling. One amendment tackles the addictive platforms; the other restores classrooms to places of learning.
We would never allow our children to be abandoned in a car park full of strangers, so why are we leaving them alone in chatrooms? Data shows that 70% of teenagers have seen violent content online, despite only 6% searching for it. Knives, pornography, and real-life violence are being delivered by algorithms designed to keep children scrolling.
Where there is a simple answer, we should simply get on with it. I know that Ministers do not get up in the morning to make the world a worse place. They are here to try to make children’s lives better. We have the opportunity to act—we have the legislation—and we must stop using excuses for inaction. Let us act, listen to the parents, and give our children their childhood back.”
Text taken from Hansard on 15th April 2026
