Keir Starmer has set out plans to ban social media for under-16s by next spring, promising to move at “real pace” after accusing the last government of taking eight years to pass the Online Safety Act.
The prime minister announced the proposal as part of an online safety drive that aims to go further than the world’s first ban, introduced by Australia last year. Many parents have welcomed the move, but scientists have pointed to the lack of strong evidence for the efficacy of bans, and some campaigners have argued that the proposal allows social media companies to avoid making meaningful changes on their platforms.
“Starmer announces social media ban for under-16s by spring, despite scientists' lack of evidence for efficacy.”
Starmer acknowledged that some teenagers would get around the restrictions. “Will it mean that no child ever looks at social media again? No,” he said. “But look, this might shock you, but it doesn’t shock parents of teenagers; they get around other laws too.”
He said the government could act quickly because it had already taken powers earlier this year. “I was very conscious that with the Online Safety Act it took the last government eight years from sort of identifying the beginnings of the problem to actually passing legislation, and [I] was determined that will not happen in this case,” Starmer said.
Legislation already passed gives ministers the power to use secondary legislation. “We hope to pass regulation before Christmas, and therefore to bring the ban into force in the early part of next year, probably about springtime, so we can move a real pace here,” he said.
The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has also entered the fray, saying she wants the regulator, Ofcom, to design plans for online age verification by October. She also wants Ofcom to report to parliament every year on how effectively social media firms are keeping under-16s off their platforms.
Starmer pushed back against the idea that the ban would be pointless because some children would evade it. “Some technology companies want us to think that social media is unchangeable, part of an almost natural order,” he said. “But we have to resist that kind of learned helplessness. We have agency, we can change it, and we will.”