(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced what he described as a “full ban” on children using social media, going beyond limits imposed by Australia last year to create one of the strictest online crackdowns in the democratic world.
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“It will make our children safer. It will make our children happier, it will give them more time, more security, more freedom to grow up, more opportunity,” Starmer said in a press briefing on Monday morning. In a hint he proceeded with one eye on his own threatened legacy, he added: “That, at the end of the day, is what this government is about.”
Starmer is seeking to place his country at the leading edge of a global rush to legislate against the harms of social media, which psychologists have linked to mental health risks. The move sets his government up for a clash with global technology companies, who’ve chafed against comparable legislation elsewhere.
The prime minister said children under 16 would be prevented from using all major social media platforms, as well as other measures including what he called “world-leading action” to prevent them from speaking to strangers on gaming services and live-streaming platforms without supervision.
But other details of enforcement were sparse, with No. 10 Downing Street saying it would provide further details next month. Results of Australia’s own efforts have been mixed, with the regulator reporting in March that about 70% of parents who said their child had social media accounts before the ban still had them.
Starmer’s government says its new range of restrictions will be tougher than Australia’s limits. Legislation will be passed by the end of the year and the ban will be implemented in spring 2027, the prime minister said. Age verification technology will be used to enforce the restrictions. There will be exemptions for some content, including YouTube Kids and Google Classroom.
“This is not something I do lightly and I will not present it as cost-free,” he added. He warned that social media is “designed to be addictive,” criticizing “features like infinite scroll” which he said “stops children doing their homework, reading, playing with friends outside and going to bed at a decent time.”
