A cabinet minister has said she is kept “awake at night” worrying about young people spending too much time alone online as the government invests millions of pounds in a bid to stop them becoming disconnected from the real world.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said they were “losing confidence in the real world” as a result – and that adults had to “step up and help before it is too late”.
Sir Keir Starmer has also warned that children are “too often isolated at home” facing the challenges of the online world.
It came as the government announced an £88m package for youth clubs and schools for services like new climbing walls and music lessons in a bid to buck the “worrying” trend of young people “detached from the real world”, Downing Street said.
Ms Nandy told the BBC’s Today programme: “It keeps me awake at night. When we were first elected into government last year one of the first things that I did was to appoint a group of young people to oversee the first national youth strategy in several decades.
“What we found through that process is that the majority of young people, and it does appear to be a majority, spend all, or almost all, of their free time alone in their bedrooms online and are losing their confidence to connect to people in the real world.”
She added: “A significant number of them say that they have no adult in the world who they would trust to help and support them. That is really, really concerning.”
She said she wanted to open up opportunities to young people “to live richer, larger lives because there is a pressing need for our generation to step up and help before it's too late”.
Under the plans, £22.5m will be used in 400 schools across the country to boost extra-curricular activities such as sport, art and music, outdoor activities, debating or volunteering.
Groups like the Scouts and Guides will also get £7.5m, while £30.5m will go into youth clubs in areas with the highest levels of child poverty.
Announcing the package, the prime minister said: “Growing up today is hard for young people. As they navigate their way through the online world, too often they find themselves isolated at home and disconnected from their communities.
“As a government, we have a duty to act on this worrying trend. [The] investment is about offering a better alternative: transformative, real-world opportunities that will have an impact in communities across the country, so young people can discover something new, find their spark and develop the confidence and life skills that no algorithm can teach.”
Downing Street said: “Young people today are spending more and more of their time detached from the real world, either stuck in their bedrooms or behind a screen, throwing up huge challenges for them and their loved ones to overcome.”
Sir Keir said the plans were part of wider efforts aimed at opening up opportunities to ensure “no child falls through the cracks”.
But the shadow culture secretary Nigel Huddleston said: “After scrapping the National Citizen Service, which gave over a million young people valuable opportunities, any investment in youth services is welcome.
“However, young people need more than just skills – they need a growing economy that can offer jobs and opportunities in the future.
“Because of Labour’s economic mismanagement and tax rises, businesses are closing, there are no jobs, and the economy is shrinking while inflation has doubled.
“Under Labour, the future of the next generation looks bleak.”
And Liberal Democrat technology spokesperson Victoria Collins said ministers should go further and ban social media firms from harvesting the data of children under the age of 16.
