House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
13th April 2026
I am writing to you, and every MP, about children's safety on social media, and the online harms of using smartphones. I believe some Members of Parliament have been misled by big tech companies' narratives on the matter.
The debate has become too binary: Leave the floodgates open for children to the worst elements of smartphones, or ban them entirely.
In fact this is not the case.
The likes of Facebook, Google, and Apple could do much more to protect children, but it simply does not fit with their business models. The technology exists to allow parents to take control of their kids’ safety, to block the worst elements of social media, while allowing them to benefit from the positives.
I know this because my social impact company’s app and phone is built to allow exactly this, and we’ve jumped through all of the hoops and faced the barriers that businesses like Apple have put in our way. Our latest app, available at SafetyMode.com, monitors all phone activity, for free, on any Android phone. It can block content and alert parents of harmful text or nudity across any app: Instagram, Snapchat, Roblox, YouTube and beyond. Parents can adjust how strict the filtering is. Crucially, everything happens on the device itself: no data ever leaves the phone.
We’ve worked with Mumsnet to provide an affordable phone option for those without spare Androids (the Other phone) and are piloting functionality that allows schools to block access to unapproved apps the moment a phone enters school grounds. Later this year we’ll have AI models able to detect self-harm, eating disorders, and manosphere content.
I raise this not to promote myself, but because these possibilities need to be part of the national conversation. The technology exists, UK tech can deliver for our kids, and I would urge your colleagues to get behind initiatives like ours. Big Tech has little commercial incentive to acknowledge that, but Parliament can.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further should you wish to learn more, or present a demo of our technology, actively installed on thousands of devices in the UK. I am available at bertie@safetymode.com.
Yours sincerely,
Bertie Aspinall
Co-Founder, Other Phone / SafetyMode
bertie@safetymode.com
