Keir Starmer was today condemned for ‘rushing’ a social media ban for under-16s amid claims he is hunting for a ‘legacy’ from his time in Downing Street.
The embattled Prime Minister – whose days in power appear numbered amid the looming threat of a leadership challenge from Andy Burnham – unveiled sweeping reforms to protect children online, with the measures dubbed an ‘Australia plus’ package.
Britain will follow Australia’s example in raising the minimum age to 16 for sites such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, and Snapchat.
But the crackdown is set to go further than Australia’s by taking ‘world leading’ action on gaming and live-streaming platforms so strangers will not be able to contact children.
The restrictions will be required to be switched on by default for children up to 17. And the Government is also looking at potential overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under-18s.
Further action will see so-called AI ‘romantic companion’ chatbots – designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with users – having to enforce a minimum age of 18, while there will also be age restrictions on AI chatbots more widely.
Encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal will not be included in the UK’s ban.
Speaking in Downing Street this morning, Sir Keir said it was clear to him that ‘a full ban is the right choice’ following a Government consultation on possible measures.
But Ian Russell – the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell who took her own life in 2017 after viewing online content about suicide and self-harm – told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I can’t help but think that this is just a rush job when it’s come to online safety.’
Mr Russell had previously warned it would be ‘deplorable’ if the process of introducing new social media restrictions had been sped up for political reasons, with Sir Keir under huge pressure to introduce a ban from Labour MPs.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed Sir Keir’s announcement of a social media ban for under-16s, although she said it is ‘not perfect’.
‘If the imperfect social media ban is his legacy, I think that says a lot about the Prime Minister,’ she added.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill questioned the timing of the announcement of a social media ban for under-16s.
She queried whether the move was ‘about internal Labour Party politics as opposed to the right thing’.
Keir Starmer has announced a social media ban for under-16s amid claims he is hunting for a ‘legacy’ from his time in Downing Street
Sir Keir’s action comes as he faces up to the prospect of being challenged for the Labour leadership by Andy Burnham as soon as this week
Ian Russell – the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell who took her own life in 2017 after viewing online content about suicide and self-harm – accused the PM of a ‘rush job’
Mr Russell said the idea of a social media ban for children sounded ‘comforting’, but added: ‘If you look at the evidence, the experts, not me, the experts and the people who have worked in this field and other organisations… loads of people, not just in this country, around the world, they all say it won’t work.
‘If you look at what’s happening in Australia, over 60 per cent of 13 to 15 year olds who shouldn’t be online because of the ban there are still online.
‘So it’s a really ineffective way of doing this properly, and you leave those people in danger if you leave them online.’
Mr Russell called for the Government to instead take stronger action against social media platforms themselves over harmful content, rather than ban children from sites.
‘I wish we would be able to look back at a landmark moment today in terms of online safety, but I absolutely fear that, as in fact, weeks, it won’t take long for this to start unravelling,’ he added.
‘We wouldn’t allow a car on the road in this country if it didn’t comply with our safety standards.
‘So, what you have to do to define those safety standards, not just for social media, media, or a small selection of social media platforms, but for all digital technologies.
‘If they want access to the population of the UK, they have to comply with our safety standards.’
Mr Russell’s criticism came after Sir Keir used a press conference on Monday morning to set out the Government’s intent to bring a social media ban into force by spring next year.
‘Every parent can see it with their own eyes,’ the PM, a father of two, said.
‘Social media is making children unhappy. It’s making it easier for bullies to harass and abuse them, and it could even be harming their mental health.’
He added: ‘It’s designed to be addictive, of course it is. Features like the infinite scroll, they’re designed to lock you in for hours, and if nothing else, there’s an opportunity cost to that.
‘It stops children doing their homework, reading, playing with their friends outside, going to bed at a decent hour.’
Sir Keir’s action comes as he faces up to the prospect of being challenged for the Labour leadership as soon as this week.
Mr Burnham , the Greater Manchester mayor, is now said to be preparing an ‘immediate’ attempt to oust the PM if he wins the Makerfield by-election on Thursday.
Polling has shown Mr Burnham is on course to win in Makerfield this week, which would see him return to the House of Commons and allow him to mount a leadership challenge.
Mr Burnham’s stiffest challenge at Thursday’s by-election is expected to come from Reform UK, as Nigel Farage’s party looks to add a ninth MP to its growing ranks.
But Reform is being hampered by the decision of Restore Britain, the hard-Right rival set up by ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe, to also stand in the constituency.
A recent survey by of Makerfield voters by More In Common and UCL Policy Lab found Mr Burnham of 45 per cent support – ahead of Reform’s Robert Kenyon on 40 per cent.
Mr Burnham’s five-point lead was smaller than the 8 per cent share for Restore candidate Rebecca Shepherd.
The poll confirmed fears among Reform figures that Restore is eating into its vote in the Greater Manchester constituency.
A separate survey, by Convergent Research, suggested Mr Burnham has a 12-point lead in the contest, on 49 per cent support with Mr Kenyon on 37 per cent. Opinion is notoriously hard to sample accurately at constituency level.
Mr Burnham’s allies were previously thought to favour ‘going long’ by waiting until later in the year – after Labour’s conference in Liverpool in September – to launch a coup bid against Sir Keir.
But the PM’s defence spending meltdown last week, which saw the resignation of John Healey as defence secretary and Al Carns as Armed Forces minister, is said to have shifted their thinking.
One source told The Times: ‘They now want to go as soon as possible and are even considering saying on by-election night, ‘we’re going to challenge for prime minister’.’
Another said: ‘Like in any campaign there have been disagreements over the strategy and what the best approach is. But everything changed on Thursday.
‘There was genuine shock… when the news notifications came through that Healey had resigned.’
Sir Keir has warned Mr Burnham – and other potential challengers such as Wes Streeting – against the ‘chaos’ of a leadership contest.
He has also vowed to ‘fight’ any challenge against him, saying: ‘I’m not going to walk away from this.’
Speaking at the press conference on Monday morning as he announced a social media ban for under-16s, Sir Keir hailed ‘a big moment for our country’.
The PM said he would not compromise on the ‘safety and happiness of our children’. He added he was confident the ban can be effective, but acknowledged some children would find their way around it.
The measure is expected to come into force by early next year, while the Government said it would go even further – if necessary – to protect children online.
Sir Keir denied suggestions that his announcement was part of a scramble for a legacy from his time as PM, saying: ‘This is a huge issue for the country, this isn’t about any one individual.
‘It is something which people in this room have been concerned about living with and campaigned about for years, and I think we do them, and all those who’ve been concerned about this, a disservice to try to put that into a particular week when there’s a by-election, actually, that’s not what it’s about.
‘This is a statement of our values, who we are as a country. And it’s a way of actually bringing our country together, so for me this is bigger than some of the usual to and fros of politics, although there’s plenty of that.’
Sir Keir also signalled he is ready for a fight with Donald Trump, who he is due to meet later on Monday at the G7 summit in France, over the issue.
The US President has previously lashed out at UK efforts to regulate American tech giants.
The PM said: ‘This is about fighting for what we think is right; and I think that protecting children is right.
‘I do not accept and I will never accept that you can’t be both pro-tech and pro-AI and, at the same time, say we must protect our children.’
Asked about children finding a way around the ban, Sir Keir: ‘That is what kids do, they try to get around all of the laws that we put in place to protect them.
‘Teenagers drink before they should, but we do not then say, ‘in which case let us abandon any attempt to stop them buying alcohol’, we say ‘let’s improve the enforcement of what we’re doing’.
‘It’s exactly the same in this field. I’m not going to stand here and say from the moment we are putting these laws into force, no child would have access to social media.
‘Of course, I’m not going to say that, but I do believe it’s the right thing to do. I do believe we can enforce it.
‘I think we’ll be better at enforcing it, actually, having learned from the Australian model, and having learned from our own experience with the Online Safety Act.’
A public consultation on potential social media restrictions for children, which closed on May 26, received about 116,000 responses, making it the second-largest in history.
More than 83 per cent of parents who responded said social media risks outweigh the benefits for children – with 91 per cent backing a minimum age of 16 before platforms can offer their services to children.
Almost two thirds (62 per cent) of children who responded said restricting the high-risk features would make them safer online.
But 72 per cent also said they were worried about feeling left out if restrictions came in.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday morning as he announced the new restrictions on social media, Sir Keir hailed ‘a big moment for our country’
Sir Keir tried to deny his announcement was part of a scramble for a legacy from his time as PM, saying: ‘This is a huge issue for the country, this isn’t about any one individual’
Sir Keir said the Government hopes to pass regulation before Christmas and bring the social media ban into force in the early part of next year, ‘probably about spring time, so we can move at real pace here’.
Asked why he had changed his mind on a ban, the PM said he had ‘started this with an open mind’.
He said it was right to go through consultation but said he was ‘absolutely clear in my mind that the ban is the right idea’.
Sir Keir added: ‘I think that we shouldn’t belittle this. This is a huge step for our country, a step that I’ve taken after sitting down and listening, particularly to parents who had lost usually a teenager in relation to what happened on social media.
‘This is very significant for our country. It is about protecting children, and I’m absolutely clear that a ban is the right outcome.’
Speaking later on ITV’s This Morning, the PM denied he had rushed out the announcement of a social media ban.
Responding to the claims by Mr Russell that he was bringing forward a ‘rush job’, the PM said: ‘We have taken our time with a consultation and a national conversation on this.
‘Some people said at the outset, ‘you don’t need a consultation, you don’t need to look at the evidence’. I disagreed with that, but now we have done it.
‘I think it’s been enriching through that, I think it’s been good to have that consultation.
‘A number of parents have said to me that they felt it was important that they were heard in the process, and I do completely understand that.’
It comes after Sir Keir last week issued a three-month ultimatum to Apple and Google to make it technologically impossible for children to take, share or view nude images on their smartphones.
The latest move risks prompting a backlash from Mr Trump’s pro-tech US administration, which warned against a blanket ban for under-16s.
In a response to the public consultation, the US embassy in London said the country preferred ‘narrowly targeted requirements’, that ‘most content should be accessible by default’, and that age verification requirements could ‘impose disproportionate compliance burdens on American companies’.
Esther Ghey, who has been campaigning for a social media ban since her 16-year-old daughter Brianna was murdered in February 2023, told the Daily Mail she would be ‘celebrating quietly’ today but stressed children would need support navigating the changes.
‘When a significant societal change happens, there will be people who are worried about it and campaigners who feel differently,’ she said.
‘Change can be uncomfortable, especially when it affects something that has become such a normal part of everyday life.
‘I know this is the right decision, but I’ll be celebrating quietly out of respect for those affected.
‘This has never been about blaming young people or taking things away from them. It’s about creating a society where children can thrive.
‘I’ve been saying from the beginning of my campaign work that parents need support. As a parent, I needed support.
‘The fact that 90 per cent of parents want to raise the age of social media to 16 absolutely proves what I have been saying all along, and I’m so grateful to all these parents for taking part in the consultation, they have been instrumental in creating change.
‘When these changes happen, schools, youth organisations and families will need to work together to support young people through that transition.
‘Some children may find it difficult at first, and they will need understanding, guidance and alternative ways to socialise.’
Esther Ghey, who has been campaigning for a social media ban since her 16-year-old daughter Brianna was murdered in February 2023, told the Daily Mail she would be ‘celebrating quietly’
Britain will follow Australia’s example in raising the minimum age to 16 for sites such as TikTok , Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, and Snapchat
Mrs Badenoch welcomed Sir Keir’s announcement of a social media ban for under-16s, although she said it is ‘not perfect’.
She said: ‘On Keir Starmer’s legacy, if the imperfect social media ban is his legacy, I think that says a lot about the Prime Minister, and he would not even be having this ban in place if it wasn’t for the Conservatives.
‘Why was there a consultation on it? Because we forced an amendment in the Lords, I think this was Lord Nash’s amendment.
‘Why has he come out with this? Because we put another amendment in a bill, which was in the Lords, where we have more numbers than we do in the Commons.’
She added: ‘The social media ban, as he’s announced it, is not perfect. I have a lot of questions, but at least he’s doing something on that, so I welcome that, and I think that we can work with them to get it into a better place.’
Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick said he and party leader Nigel Farage are ‘very sceptical’ about the decision to ban under-16s from social media, adding it risks a ‘massive erosion of privacy’ if users are asked to verify their age using ID.
‘I understand where this came from, that it is well-intentioned, but Nigel and I are very sceptical about this,’ Mr Jenrick said.
‘We think it is very impractical, that is highly unlikely to succeed and deliver the outcomes that it aims to do.’
He added that evidence of the success of a similar ban in Australia is ‘very mixed’, with children finding ways to get around the rules.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘We’re also very worried that this will be a backdoor route into mandatory ID, where everyone, frankly, regardless of their age, is going to have to start to put in their ID – a massive erosion of privacy online for the first time.
‘We are much more interested in whether you could use technology like the handsets that are available to young people as the route, so they don’t have access to some of the harmful content without going down this road, which, I’m afraid, is very likely to fail and have a lot of unintended consequences.’
Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, her party’s education spokesman, said: ‘The Liberal Democrats have long stood with the thousands of families crying out for action against harmful content and addictive algorithms, and we will keep fighting their corner.
‘Now it looks like after months of delay, the Government have cobbled together a hodgepodge of social media restrictions which don’t keep children safe, nor hold big tech’s feet to the fire.
‘The Government must heed the lessons from Australia and stand up to big tech with a credible set of measures that genuinely protects our children, rather than rushing through a half-baked policy just to secure a political legacy.’
Labour MP Rosie Wrighting questioned the inclusion of YouTube in a ban, saying: ‘I had social media growing up so I deeply understand the concerns.
‘But growing up I didn’t have access to tutors. My mum wasn’t around as she worked evenings. When I needed help revising for my GCSEs, I turned to educational content on YouTube.
‘For kids from backgrounds like mine, it offers support they might not get elsewhere. That matters in this conversation.’
Chris Sherwood, CEO at the NSPCC, said: ‘Today is a win for children and parents and all of us who have campaigned for better child protection online. Big Tech must not have access to our children where their dangerous platforms are causing appalling harm to young people. This is a watershed moment for child protection.
‘We welcome this ambition from Government, who have listened and demonstrated a clear commitment to go further than just a social media ban. Now they need to translate this into bold action, so it delivers meaningful change for millions of children.
‘Australia has shown that bans alone don’t keep all children safe, some young people will always slip through the net.
‘To deliver on their ambition, the Government must ensure that there are robust age checks on platforms, an effective enforcement regime and they must tackle addictive features across all services that leave young people scrolling for hours on end. Without this, they will open up a huge protection gap for children in the UK.
‘The Government must continue to put pressure on Big Tech and not let them off the hook. We want to see Government go further, be bolder and make sure there is real accountability across all online platforms, gaming services, and AI chatbots so the transformational change children and parents need and deserve becomes a reality.’
But some groups have argued that a ban may not be the appropriate instrument to tackle a wide spread of social media harms.
The Molly Rose Foundation, set up in memory of Molly Russell, said a social media ban ‘will fail to tackle fundamental product safety risk issues and leaves parents with a false sense of safety’.
Chief executive Andy Burrows said: ‘A majority of children will continue to use high-risk sites that will have no incentive to implement robust protections.
‘This is not what online safety experts believe will work and is necessary. Keir Starmer has chosen to abdicate responsibility for tackling harmful algorithms and his legacy will be setting back children’s safety by years.’
The co-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for digital creators, Labour’s Feryal Clark, argued young people should not lose access to good-quality content that helps young people learn and find communities.
She said: ‘High-quality, creator-led educational video content is a critical public resource and is not the same thing as social media.
‘For example, many young people use it to revise for GCSEs, to learn a language or a musical instrument.
‘Any legislative intervention must capably address this distinction.
‘Failing to do so would be dangerously short-sighted and cut off opportunities from young people at exactly the moment they need these things most.’
Leanda Barrington-Leach, executive director of the 5Rights Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that campaigns for online safety, said ‘a ban or curfew may change who comes through the front door, but it does not change what is waiting for children inside’ and that firms must be driven ‘to make their products safe for kids’.
A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said:’We share the goal of keeping teens safe online, which is why we developed Teen Accounts to automatically limit who can contact them and the content they see. Like others, we don’t think bans will achieve this goal.
‘As we’ve seen in Australia, bans risk isolating teens from online communities and information, and driving them to unregulated alternatives that lack built-in protections and parental controls.
‘To be both effective and easy for parents, any restrictions must be underpinned by an age verification system on devices so people aren’t asked to hand over ID to dozens of individual services to prove their age.
‘We will continue to engage with the Government and Ofcom as they work to implement this policy.’
An Ofcom spokesman said: ‘So far, Ofcom has driven some of the strongest changes of any online safety regulation in the world, from widespread age checks to grooming protections for children.
‘But the industry needs to go much further to make people safe. The Government has entrusted us to build on this progress with new measures to protect children, and we’re ready to work closely with them as the detailed regulations take shape.’
