UK: Under-16s to be banned from social media, Starmer announces

2026-06-15 08:02 UTC

Under-16s will be banned from using social media, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced. Starmer says social media is making children unhappy, making it easier for bullies to abuse children, and is “designed to be addictive”. A ban would give children more time, security, and more freedom to grow up - as well as more opportunities, he adds. “That is all any parent wants. They want to know that Britain will be better for their children, that they will get a fair chance,” the PM says in a speech in Downing Street. Starmer adds that the government is “not prepared to compromise” on the safety and happiness of children - and that includes in the regulation and enforcement of this ban. He says the government has listened to and learned from countries like Australia, where a similar ban has already been introduced.

Replies (17)

@HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 2026-06-15 08:23

I’m not entirely sure how that’s panning out in Aus (a quick search suggests it’s a flop, but the sources aren’t great). I think the general consensus is that it’s not as enforceable as they hoped. We are moving towards an era of a more locked down web in the UK. The main flag here is “robust age verification” - i.e. we’re moving from “you must provide ID to view adult material on social media” to “you must provide ID to use social media”. One can quickly see “your id must be retained and linked to your account to reduce crime” and “any officer of the law may view this ID to better support crime reduction” slipping in over the next 20 years or so. Overall, this feels like another Trojan horse to move towards a China-style de-anonymised web. Bad move all around really.

Open ##3381489
@wpb@lemmy.world 2026-06-16 04:56

This has nothing to do whatsoever with protecting children. That is not the goal. This is anti-privacy, plain and simple. Discussing the merits of this plan as a child protection measure is agreeing to their framing of the discussion, it’s agreeing to discuss it on their terms, and then you’ve already lost.

Open ##3381990
@lavaparrot@lemmy.world 2026-06-15 20:15

Where and when can I protest this in-person?

Open ##3382154
@melfie@lemmy.zip 2026-06-15 23:28

Thousands of people are already getting arrested every year in the UK over social media posts. Good thing the government cares so much about “protecting the children”, because their parents won’t be able to from jail if they say anything the Epstein class doesn’t like, especially now that every post will be conveniently linked to a verified identity. 🙄

Open ##3382432
@Kuma@lemmy.world 2026-06-15 17:35

I think this is a very interesting topic. How can you verify that someone is of age without the problem with privacy? Would you go to a kiosk or something and buy a code that is not bound to you as a person but the person who works there have verified that you are over 16? So it will kinda be like a steam code except they need to check your actual age with a valid identification (that is only shown to the person) and that code will be bound to an account when claimed. If it is per account then that could also make it annoying for kids to create multiple accounts if they aren’t of age. How else could you do it without needing to trust someone to keep your identity safe? Throw your ideas at me! And we do not need perfect, look at alcohol consumptions, that is illegal for kids but some find their ways anyway. It just needs to be annoying so most don’t do it or do it less

Open ##3382666
@zikzak025@lemmy.world 2026-06-15 11:13

I am in favor of keeping kids off of social media, but I think the method of ID verification as default is entirely wrong. Parents should ultimately be responsible for the activity of their child. If you can’t trust your child to use the internet/social media responsibly, they simply should not be given access to smart devices. If a kid gets onto social media and does stupid things there, go after the parents for neglect. The same would happen if I wasn’t supervising my 8-year-old and they sneak off to vandalize someone else’s property. At most, maybe conversations could happen with ISPs to standardize an optional whitelist system for home consumers with children to block access to key social media domains for unapproved devices, but that’s as far as I’d go. Empower parents with better supervisory tools to be more involved, no need to violate the rights of everyone else.

Open ##3382747
@Paddy66@lemmy.ml 2026-06-16 05:59

70% of Australian children get around the ban. And besides: blog.rebeltechalliance.org/sm-ban-bad-idea/

Open ##3383888
@bumbling_bee@lemmy.ml 2026-06-15 21:16

They learned from countries like Australia huh? Australian here, did they learn how much its not working 😂🙄! None of my kids have anything other than YouTube, but my 9yo knew how to get around it. He doesn’t because he just watches in a browser with ad blockers and we monitor it. My high schooler reports the many and varied ways kids just changed where they go online to continue their crap. Do I think under 16s should be on social media, no. But identity verification is not going to fix that.

Open ##3383901
@Evotech@lemmy.world 2026-06-16 06:08

Don’t put on a fake mustache when asked to take a photo to verify age.

Open ##3384118
@cuntlava@lemmy.world 2026-06-16 06:11

When is the Two Minutes Hate being instituted then?

Open ##3384203
@GoatSynagogue@lemmy.world 2026-06-16 06:38

Open ##3385135
@GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2026-06-16 07:15

if the goal was to actually protect kids, it wouldn’t be a problem. however, this isn’t supposed to protect kids, it’s supposed to protect corpofascists.

Open ##3386282
@abc@suppo.fi 2026-06-17 04:12

I support the battle against attention-consuming energy vampires but this is probably not going to work practically.

Open ##3388130
@LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2026-06-16 22:07

Social media would become a ghost town.

Open ##3388147
@Auth@lemmy.world 2026-06-17 04:49

This is based, adults next.

Open ##3389176
@bigmamoth@lemmy.world 2026-06-17 05:35

Really interesting they push for that the day of the report of investigation regarding rape gang and how the gouvernement didn’t protect children en even enable harm toward them. Trully disgusting. Really hope they get prosecuted by the next gouvernement

Open ##3391424
@MartianRecon@lemmus.org 2026-06-16 20:38

Social media needs to go away, fully. Not just for kids.

Open ##3392062