Parents looking to TikTok stars and Instagram experts for guidance on issues ranging from potty training to child vaccination risk are being tricked by inaccurate and substandard information, the education secretary has cautioned.
Bridget Phillipson was addressing the government’s launch of its “Best Start in Life” campaign – occasionally referred to as Sure Start Mark 2 following the previous Labour government’s early years policy, widely viewed by many as its greatest achievement.
“Becoming a parent for the first time, especially if you’re in a less well-off community, can be incredibly isolating and very lonely, and it’s therefore understandable that parents seek to access support online,” she said during a visit to a family hub in Peterborough on Monday.
But some of that is really variable in quality. Some of it will be of poor quality or misleading,” she said, continuing: “I worry that parents tend to get contradictory advice on the internet that leaves them worrying if they’re getting it right.
Phillipson was speaking about new research, conducted on behalf of the government, which found 33% of parents of young children are now “heavily reliant” on scrolling social media for parenting advice.
Seven out of 10 (69%) of the 2,500 parents of children aged up to four years old said they felt overwhelmed by the volume of information available, and a similar proportion (68%) struggle to trust conflicting advice online.
Over a third (57%) reported feeling confused as to where to obtain reliable advice, and the same percentage have postponed or avoided taking action because they did not have confidence in the advice offered.
The Department for Education is especially worried about viral social media posts promoting untested “miracle” solutions or hacks and short-form videos that claim to be about parenting but provide no evidence.
Such as a viral Facebook video where a “self-employed parenting guru” with a million fans claimed that instructing children to “stop running” or “don’t sit like that” makes them “rebel and throw tantrums” because it destroys their self-esteem, potentially deterring parents from establishing boundaries.
Another was a “verified” Instagram parent page with nearly half a million followers who wrote that “parents who empathise rather than criticise are building a better society”, with the suggestion that strict rules are damaging, and elsewhere, a forum discussion on parents discussing whether or not bedtimes should be banned as they were too controlling.
There are also growing concerns regarding online disinformation on childhood vaccination. One in five English children now begins primary school without protection from serious infectious diseases such as measles, whooping cough, and mumps.
“I want to ensure that parents can access high-quality, unbiased material, including around health, and yes, that does include access to clear information about the value of vaccination,” Phillipson stated.
The Best Start campaign run by the government has a one-stop website to enable parents to access evidence-based advice and information about a wide range of parenting concerns, such as pregnancy, breastfeeding, baby and toddler tooth health, sleep, speech and language.
It also comprises thousands of school-based nurseries, family hubs in every locality, free breakfast clubs in every school, and support for a holiday activities and food programme for children from poor families for another three years.
Phillipson, a candidate for deputy leadership of the Labour Party, pledged to extend and future-proof Sure Start, launched by the Labour government in 1999 to offer centres providing information and guidance on child and family health, parenting, finance, training, and employment.
Funding for the programme was reduced by over two-thirds following the change in administration in 2010, and over 1,340 centres closed between 2022 and 2010. Up to 1,000 family hubs will be rolled out nationwide from April 2026 as part of Best Start, supported by a £500m investment.
What I will create in Best Start family hubs will last for generations,” she said. “The tragedy of Sure Start was that it was so easy for the Conservatives to unpick.”.
“I want to create a legacy which lasts, where we have hubs around the country and broader support for parents online which lasts the test of time, which won’t be knocked down, and which will put children at the heart of our national life.”
