At the Anti-Bullying Alliance, we work every day with schools, children’s services, charities and young people themselves to understand what is happening in children’s lives. One message is consistently clear: bullying does not stop at the school gates. It follows children into their phones, their gaming spaces and their social platforms.
That is why we have signed the Joint Statement of Principles for Furthering the Protection of Children Online.
These principles set out a shared approach across the children’s sector to ensure digital platforms are designed with children and young people’s safety in mind. Importantly, they focus on making services safer by design rather than placing responsibility on children and families to manage risks alone.
Why these principles could help prevent bullying
Online bullying is shaped not just by individual behaviour, but by platform design. Features such as anonymous contact, algorithmic amplification, livestreaming, location sharing, and engagement driven notifications can make harm easier to deliver and harder to escape.
Children repeatedly tell us they want adults to make platforms safer, not simply restrict their access to them.
The principles reflect this by stating clearly that:
- safety should be the price for platforms accessing children
- responsibility must sit with digital services, not parents and children
- design features that increase risk should be addressed directly
- children’s experiences must shape policy decisions about online safety
This aligns closely with what we hear from schools and young people during Anti-Bullying Week and through our ongoing programmes and work with our members.
What the principles call for
The Joint Statement, signed by a number of charities and campaigners, sets out a practical framework for improving children’s safety online. It proposes that:
- services that cannot meet minimum safety standards should not be allowed to operate for children
- addictive and persuasive design features such as infinite scrolling and autoplay should be addressed
- stranger contact, livestreaming and risky AI features should be included within the scope of online safety measures
- gaming platforms and emerging technologies must be covered alongside social media
- platforms should remain responsible for children’s safety even where young people try to circumnavigate or workaround restrictions
- children’s voices should inform future safeguards
- stronger public messaging should help families understand online risks
- digital literacy should support children online as they grow older
- independent oversight should monitor how platforms respond to risks
Together, these steps move the conversation forward from whether children should simply be online or offline, towards how the environments they use can be made safer.
Why we have signed
The Anti-Bullying Alliance has worked with partners across the sector to develop a shared position on online safety. Our joint statement with core members makes clear that age limits or bans alone cannot solve the online harms children experience.
Instead, we need platforms to be genuinely age-appropriate, safer by design and accountable when harm occurs.
These principles reflect that approach. They help demonstrate that children’s charities are united in calling for stronger action from government and industry.
They also provide a strong foundation for engagement with the government’s consultation on online harms and for future policy development in this area.
Most importantly, they send a clear message: preventing bullying online means designing digital spaces that work for children, not expecting children to manage unsafe environments on their own.
We will continue working with government, schools, families and young people to ensure every child can experience connection and community online without fear of harm.