U.K.’s Starmer Summons U.S. Social Media Companies Over Child Safety Online | #childsafety | #kids | #chldern | #parents | #schoolsafey

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain will meet on Thursday with officials from several American social media companies as his government considers introducing new rules to protect children online, his office said Wednesday.

The meeting at No. 10 Downing Street will include officials from Meta, Snap, Google, TikTok and X, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. Mr. Starmer intends to tell the company executives that Britain is poised to act “within months, not years” and to ask how they are addressing parents’ concerns.

“Social media shapes how children see themselves, their friendships and the world around them,” Mr. Starmer said in the statement. “When that comes with real risks, looking the other way is not an option.”

The prime minister’s increasingly aggressive posture on the issue is in line with many parents in Britain, who have repeatedly told pollsters that they want the government to do more to protect children from harms related to social media and cellphone use. Mounting evidence of the risks to developing brains posed by addictive technology, extreme video content pushed by social media algorithms and rising rates of anxiety and self-harm among teenagers have piled pressure on the government to act.

Last year, more than 124,000 parents of children across the country signed a pact pledging not to allow their children to get phones before the end of Year 9, which is equivalent to the eighth grade in the United States.

Some members of the prime minister’s Labour Party have urged him to follow the lead of the government in Australia, which has banned the use of social media for children under 16.