No option ‘off the table’ as Britain mulls over social media ban for children

LONDON – Britain will consider tightening rules on children’s use of social media with no option “off the table”, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Jan 20, warning that young people risked being pulled into “a world of endless scrolling, anxiety and comparison”.

Mr Starmer said his Labour government was prepared to take “robust action”, a day after it said it would examine whether features such as infinite scrolling and the age at which children can access platforms should be restricted.

The government said it would examine evidence from around the world on suggested proposals, including looking at whether a social media ban for children would be effective and how best to make such a ban work if it were imposed.

Ministers will visit Australia, which in December

became the first country to ban social media

for children under 16, to learn from their approach, it said on Jan 19.

‘Children need space to grow’

The government did not mention a particular age limit, but said it was exploring a ban for children “under a certain age” and measures such as better age checks.

“As I have been clear, no option is off the table,” Mr Starmer said on media platform Substack.

He said technology had great potential to improve lives and open opportunities for young people.

“But being a child should not be about constant judgment from strangers or the pressure to perform for likes. Children need space to grow,” he said. “For too many today, it means being pulled into a world of endless scrolling, anxiety and comparison.”

Mr Starmer said parents would be offered evidence-based advice on how long children aged five to 16 should spend on phones, tablets and computers, with separate guidance for those under the age of five to be published in April.

Mobile phones “have no place in classrooms”, with education regulator Ofsted set to check bans are properly enforced, he said.

Britain has set out plans for a

ban on artificial intelligence nudification tools

and is working to stop children being able to take, share or view nude images on their devices.

It is considering removing or limiting functionalities that could drive addictive or compulsive use of social media, such as infinite scrolling.

Britain’s Online Safety Act has led to an increase in online age checks, with the share of children encountering age checks online rising to 47 per cent from 30 per cent.

It has also cut visits to pornography sites by a third, the government says.

But “these laws were never meant to be the end point”, Britain’s Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said. REUTERS