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Parent (child year 6-7) - consent form

Children’s smartphone usage research study

Parent (child year 6-7) - consent form

About the study

The Department for Education is running a research project about children’s smartphone usage. The aim is to understand the impact of delaying or restricting children’s access to smartphones. The findings from this research will be used to inform the development of guidance by the Department for Education for families and schools about children’s use of smartphones. IFF Research are delivering this project on behalf of the Department for Education.

What participation will look like

If you and your child agree, your child will take part in an online 1.5-hour-long research workshop with other children of a similar age. Children will take part in age-appropriate activities such as drawing, games and discussions, to help us understand their perspectives on owning and using smartphones.

As a thank you for taking part, we will offer a multi-retailer voucher of £30 for workshop participation.

How information will be gathered and used

Your and your child’s personal details will be used for research purposes only, stored securely and retained for no longer than 12 months after the completion of the study. We will not share personal information with anyone outside IFF Research including the Department for Education. You and your child have the right to have a copy of your data, change your data or have your data deleted at any point.

Your child also has the right to stop participating during the workshop or to have their contributions deleted after the workshop. You can ask us to do this until 25th September, when contributions will be anonymised and grouped together for the purposes of analysis.

The research discussion will be audio and video recorded. Recording will stop if any safeguarding concerns arise. Recordings will be used for research purposes only and stored securely.

Any data we share with the Department for Education will be completely anonymised first. Anything your child shares in the discussion will be reported in group. This means no one reading our research report will be able to tell who participated nor who said what.

Technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to support the transcription and analysis of the discussion. AI will be used in a closed environment only, so the discussion will not be used to train publicly available models.

If you have any questions about how data will be handled, please consult the Department for Education’s privacy notice here: Privacy information: members of the public - GOV.UK

Voluntary participation

Participation in this study is entirely voluntary. You or your child may withdraw your consent at any time without any consequences. If you wish to withdraw from the study or if you would like to ask any questions before deciding to participate, please contact the IFF Research team at [email protected] or the DfE team at [email protected].

Consent

By signing below, you indicate that you have read and understood the information provided above. You understand that the workshops will be recorded and you agree for your child to participate in this study.

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September 10, 2026 5:43 pm BST

Parent (child year 6-7) - consent form Uploaded by Georgie Chaffey - [email protected] IP 212.42.190.49

September 11, 2026 9:27 am BST

Take Part - [email protected] added by Georgie Chaffey - [email protected] as a CC'd Recipient Ip: 212.42.190.49