2026-02-17 15:03:53

Sir Keir Starmer says that a social media ban for under-16s in the UK isn’t guaranteed.

The Prime Minister has promised to fast-track a crackdown on young people’s access to social media but indicated that he will not try and copy Australia by imposing a blanket ban on the platforms.

Speaking at an event in London on Monday (16.02.26), Starmer said: “I think this is such an important issue that we need to go into it with a ban as a possibility.

“There are powerful arguments on both sides. Some people simply say just get all under-16s off social media, and that’s the end of it. NSPCC, obviously an organisation very concerned with children’s protection, says no, it’ll push children to even darker places.

“Others – I was with young people this morning, 15 and 16-year-olds who are actually going to be affected by this – they said to me, look we get our news from social media, we don’t read the papers, and therefore you’ll stop us accessing the news. We need to look at all of this in the round.”

The government has announced plans to rush through changes recommended after a consultation on the issue by tabling amendments to two bills currently going through Parliament – the children’s wellbeing and schools bill, as well as the crime and policing bill.

The idea is for the amendments to create powers for ministers to implement plans, with the children’s bill covering the issue of social media and the crime bill shutting down potential loopholes connected to AI chatbots.

Starmer believes that this will allow the government to react quickly to what is such a fluid issue.

The politician said: “We’ve taken the powers to make sure we can act within months, not years.

“We also need to act very quickly, not just on the age concern, but on the devices and applications that make the sort of auto-scrolling, the constant glueing to the machine that you can never stop scrolling.”

He continued: “I don’t think there’s a parent in the country who isn’t worried about this, by the way, I really don’t. The status quo, things as they are now, is not good enough. Nobody can make the argument that things can be left as they are. They can’t, they’re not protective of children, and we intend to act.”

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