UK Government to consult on social media ban for under-16s

Ministers will look at options including raising the digital age of consent and restricting potentially addictive app design features such as “streaks” and “infinite scrolling”.

There have been growing calls for the Prime Minister to raise the minimum age for social media platforms, and No 10 has signalled it is open to the idea.

It comes after more than 60 Labour MPs - including six Scots - had written to the UK Government urging them to introduce a ban.

Later this week, the Lords will vote on an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which would require social media platforms to stop children under 16 from using their platforms within a year of the Bill passing.

The Government will also produce screen time guidance for parents of children aged five to 16. Guidance for parents of under-fives will be published in April, it said.

Ministers will visit Australia as part of its consultation, where a social media ban for under-16s came into force in December.

The Government will seek views from parents and young people and the Government will respond in the summer, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said.

But former schools minister Lord Nash said the consultation represented only more delay.

“This announcement offers nothing for the hundreds of thousands of parents, teachers, medical professionals, senior police officers, national security experts and parliamentarians of all parties who have been calling for a raising of the age limit for social media,” the Conservative peer, who is tabling the Lords amendment, said.

“The Prime Minister must be in no doubt about the strength of feeling on this. The longer we delay, the more children we fail. I continue to urge all peers to back my amendment on Wednesday which would begin to end the catastrophic harm being done to a generation.”

Lord Nash’s amendment has already secured the support of the National Education Union (NEU) and 61 Labour MPs, who had written to the Prime Minister calling for “urgent action”.

The Scottish MPs to sign the letter were Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West), Irene Campbell (North Ayrshire and Arran), Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow West), Joani Reid (East Kilbride and Strathaven), Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) and Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow).

Livingston MP Gregor Poynton had also been a vocal supporter of the ban before he became a government whip last year.

Kemi Badenoch has already said the Conservative Party would introduce a ban for under-16s if it was in power.

Esther Ghey, whose 16-year-old daughter Brianna was murdered by two other teenagers in 2023, said on Monday that a ban would be “a vital step in protecting children online”.

In a letter to party leaders Sir Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey, Ms Ghey said her daughter had had a “social media addiction” and “desperately wanted to be TikTok famous”, putting her “in constant fear about who Brianna might be speaking to online”.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “Technology has huge potential to create jobs, transform public services, and improve lives. But we will only seize on that potential if people know they and their children are safe online.

“We are determined to ensure technology enriches children’s lives, not harms them – and to give every child the childhood they deserve.”