UK to consult on social media ban for under 16s

The federal government will seek the advice of on whether or not social media must be banned for under-16s within the UK.

It mentioned “rapid motion” would give Ofsted the ability to examine insurance policies on telephone use when it inspects faculties, and it anticipated faculties to be “phone-free by default” on account of the announcement.

An identical ban took impact in Australia in December 2025, the primary of its variety on the planet. Different nations are mentioned to be contemplating such a regulation.

It comes after greater than 60 Labour MPs wrote to the prime minister concerning the situation, with the mom of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey additionally calling on the federal government to behave.

“Some argue that susceptible kids want entry to social media to search out their neighborhood,” Brianna’s mom Esther Ghey wrote in a letter seen by the BBC.

“Because the father or mother of a particularly susceptible and trans youngster, I strongly disagree.

“In Brianna’s case, social media restricted her skill to interact in real-world social interactions. She had actual buddies, however she selected to stay on-line as an alternative.”

Based on The Division of Science, Innovation and Know-how, the session will “search views from dad and mom, younger individuals and civil society” to find out the effectiveness of a ban.

It will additionally take a look at whether or not extra sturdy age checks could possibly be carried out by social media corporations, which could possibly be pressured to take away or restrict options “which drive compulsive use of social media”.

And Ofsted will give harder steering to colleges to scale back telephone use – together with telling workers to not use their gadgets for private causes in entrance of pupils.

The federal government will reply to the session in the summertime.

Know-how Secretary Liz Kendall mentioned the legal guidelines within the On-line Security Act have been “by no means meant to be the top level” and mentioned she understood “dad and mom nonetheless have severe considerations”.

“We’re decided to make sure know-how enriches kids’s lives, not harms them – and to provide each youngster the childhood they deserve,” she mentioned.

Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch has already mentioned her get together would introduce a social media ban for under-16s if it was in energy.

She mentioned the session was “extra dither and delay” from Labour.

“The prime minister is making an attempt to repeat an announcement that the Conservatives made every week in the past, and nonetheless not getting it proper,” she mentioned.

Liberal Democrat training spokeswoman Munira Wilson mentioned there was “no time to waste in defending our youngsters from social media giants” and “this session dangers kicking the can down the street but once more”.

Nationwide Schooling Union (NEU) basic secretary Daniel Kebede known as the transfer a “welcome shift”.

“Every single day, dad and mom and academics see how social media shapes kids’s identities and a focus lengthy earlier than they sit their GCSEs, pulling them into isolating, countless loops of content material,” he mentioned.

The Affiliation of Faculty and Faculty Leaders additionally welcomed the session on social media, however mentioned the federal government had been “sluggish” in responding to the net dangers posed to kids.

The union’s basic secretary Pepe Di’Iasio mentioned there was “clearly a a lot wider drawback of kids and younger individuals spending far an excessive amount of time on screens and being uncovered to inappropriate content material”.

And Paul Whiteman, basic secretary of the Nationwide Affiliation of Head Lecturers, additionally welcomed the plans to seek the advice of on a possible social media ban.

However he mentioned the suggestion that Ofsted ought to “police” telephones in faculties was “deeply unhelpful and misguided”.

“Faculty leaders want help from authorities, not the specter of heavy-handed inspection,” he added.

It comes as the federal government faces further strain from the Home of Lords, which is anticipated to vote on a proposed ban on Wednesday.

The modification to the Kids’s Wellbeing and Faculties Invoice has backing from a number of outstanding figures akin to former kids’s TV presenter Baroness Benjamin and former training minister Lord Nash.

There’s additionally a separate amendment calling for the introduction of film-style age scores which might restrict the social media apps kids can entry.

Professor Amy Orben, who leads the Digital Psychological Well being programme on the College of Cambridge’s MRC Cognition and Mind Sciences Unit, informed the BBC there was “broad settlement” extra wanted to be executed to maintain kids protected on-line.

Nevertheless, she mentioned there was nonetheless “not sturdy proof” that age-based social media bans have been efficient.

Dr Holly Bear from Oxford College, whose work focuses on growing, evaluating, and implementing psychological well being interventions for younger individuals, agreed the proof for the results of a social media ban was “nonetheless unfolding”.

“A balanced method is likely to be making an attempt to scale back algorithm-driven publicity to dangerous content material, bettering safeguards, supporting digital literacy and punctiliously evaluating any main coverage interventions,” she mentioned.

The NSPCC, Childnet, and suicide prevention charity the Molly Rose Foundation have been amongst 42 people and our bodies to argue a ban can be the “flawed resolution” on Saturday.

“It will create a false sense of security that might see kids – but additionally the threats to them – migrate to different areas on-line,” the organisations wrote.

“Although well-intentioned, blanket bans on social media would fail to ship the advance in kids’s security and wellbeing that they so urgently want.”