New thinking and inspiring ideas for children’s entertainment

FK&Y’s Barbie Clarke and George Hanks were at the Children’s Media Conference – held 7-9 July 2026. Barbie talks about the conference. 

The Children’s Media Conference, held annually in Sheffield, was truly inspiring this year. Going up to Sheffield for the conference is always a pleasure, but this year, particularly, it hit many key issues that are being spoken about around the world. The packed programme comprehensively looked at children’s lives now – six years after Covid hit.  

Adolescents: Welcome to My World 

I spoke at the conference with David Squire from DSQ Consultancy (on July 9th). With the award-winning film Adolescence in mind, we talked about our research, looking at what children and young people are doing online from the perspective of their wellbeing, including who they are connecting with and speaking to online, and their use of AI. Launched in August 2018, FK&Y’s annual tracking study now in its 7th round, was carried out in May and June. We carried out 6 workshops in schools with 105 young people aged 11-16, and 1,000 nationally representative interviews across the UK with children aged 7-16.   

Barbie and David, together with Kate Davis and Jay Ayliffe from Ofcom, and session producers Tilly De Silva and Vickie O’Mally.

On 15 June 2026 the UK government announced a social media ban for under-16s, to be introduced early 2027. The government is also considering an overnight curfew and measures to stop infinite scrolling for under-18s. The then Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, said keeping children off social media is the best way to keep them safe online. 

So this year FK&Y was able to talk to children and young people about the proposed ban on social media, and how they feel about this. With Australia’s ban on social media for children under 16 introduced December 2025, many countries have announced their intention to implement similar measures – including Denmark, France. Greece, Slovenia, (proposed for children under 15), and UK, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain (proposed for children under 16).  

David explained that our research clearly showed the UK’s proposed social media ban is unpopular with many adolescents, who believe that the companies, not the children, should be held accountable for what they see, access, and engage with on social media platforms. If changes are to be made, then preserving communication tools (over content creation) is wished for by most young people. Importantly, in light of the planned ban, we concluded our session by highlighting what a ‘massive opportunity’ we are all now presented with, to build a better space for young people both on and off line. 

Made with Care 

I also spoke at ‘Made with Care – what’s it really like growing up in 2026?’. This explored the impact of media choices on children’s wellbeing. We know that children’s mental health has declined in the last few years – and there are serious and skilled people looking at how to change this. I spoke about FKY’s research on children’s mental health and the internet, and my fellow panellists spoke about how encouraging children to be creative can support their mental health.

The panel – Sile Sibenda, Barbie Clarke, Dom Heslop, Tim Compton, Amanda Gummer and Alvin Hussey

Chaired by award-winning BBC presenter, Sile Sibenda, the panel discussed how children’s media choices are affecting their well-being, and what can support them to have a happier, healthy life.  The panel pointed out the importance for young people to take part in creative experiences. Dom Heslop, Founder and Creative Director of SlamBarz CIC in Sheffield, explained how young musicians can benefit from being part of a creative group through performing – in person. Tim Compton, Executive Producer at Lime Pictures spoke of the difficulties young people have expressing themselves in an environment in which they also want to conform. He pointed out that while characters with empowering journeys can be relatable and empower young people, it is still important to weave real issues into the escapism that stories provide. 

Dr Amanda Gummer, author of The Good Play Guide, explained how developing the Children’s Digital Well-being Framework has provided evidence-based design principles for anyone making online content, and that using the framework can help create content that supports children to thrive. Alvin Hussey Business Development Director at SuperAwesome, discussed the need to protect young people whilst maintaining commercial potential to support creatives to make high-quality content, and the way in which partnership with Roblox is helping brands create safe and appropriate content for under 13s. 

The Conference 

What was truly inspiring were the ideas that the creative industry is coming up with, and ideas for making entertainment for children that did not necessarily mean going online. Remembering, once more, that children and young people like to be playful and have fun, far more than doom scrolling and seeing harmful content online. We learnt 2 years ago about the violence children are seeing online in our work for Ofcom ‘Understanding pathways to online violent content among childrenhttps://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/pathways-to-online-violent-content’. And we learnt of the work Ofcom is currently doing with children and families from Jay Ayliffe and Kate Davis who spoke after us, in their session ‘Growing Up Online Today’.  

I’m also inspired by the degree of concern and responsibility that the Children’s Media Federation is putting into ensuring children are entertained safely, and the next steps for ensuring children and young people receive the best the creative industry can offer. Thank you CMF!