British Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled plans Monday for a sweeping social media ban for under-16s across the U.K., following multiple other countries, including Canada, introducing their own plans to limit youth access to social media.
“It’s a giant step for our country,” Starmer said in a video message posted on X on Monday.
“Social media is making our youngsters unhappy and unsafe, and as a parent, as much as a Prime Minister, I just can’t let that go on anymore,” he added, while acknowledging that the ban has and can proceed to face pushback and would require constant adaptation to maintain up with technological advancements.
“Our kids deserve higher; they deserve a glad, secure childhood in a stronger, fairer Britain,” he continued.
The ban will include platforms corresponding to Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. Messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal is not going to be included, the U.K. government said in a news release.
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It is going to also block “harmful functions corresponding to livestreaming and stranger communication with children for under-16s.”
Starmer said the British government had based its plan on Australia’s, the primary country to implement such a ban.
It was enacted into law in December, though enforcement has not been straightforward. In March, Australia’s eSafety Commission said that many children under 16 still had access to, or could create, accounts on restricted platforms.
The U.K.’s policy, which also includes measures to limit access to online gaming sites, is designed to cut back the mental and physical toll that limitless online scrolling takes on young people, including displacing sleep, the lack of play and time spent with family and friends, the prime minister noted in his video message, before citing an amazing public response in favour of restrictions.
British government data collected from a consultation of greater than 116,000 people between March 2 and May 26 found that nine in 10 parents were in favour of decisive motion to curb social media use amongst under-16s, the federal government said.
“I’ve heard firsthand from families crying out for change and we are going to do right by them,” Starmer said, adding it was time to carry digital platforms accountable for his or her failure to implement sufficient protections.
“This can be a line within the sand,” he said. “Tech giants had their probability and failed, but we’re stepping in to guard children, back parents and set a brand new normal for future generations.”
The plans come as Elon Musk’s xAI, which operates the chatbot Grok, faces landmark litigation over claims of non-consensual sexualized image generation and that it facilitated the production and distribution of kid sexual abuse material.
It also comes days after the Canadian government introduced online harms laws that may require social media firms to limit children under 16 years old from their platforms.
Unlike the U.K. and Australia, the Protected Social Media Act puts the onus on tech giants by requiring social media and AI chatbot platforms to include age-appropriate designs, including content warning labels, safe-search settings for youngsters and measures to cut back addictive behaviours corresponding to limitless scrolling.
Similar laws have been or are resulting from be passed in Malaysia, Brazil, France and other nations.
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