Andy Burnham is set to press ahead with a social media ban for under-16s, with ministers planning to go further than Australia by introducing stronger age verification requirements, according to The Times newspaper.
The Labour Party Prime Minister will continue the crackdown previously announced by his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, who unveiled the plans in June before resigning a week later.
Stricter than Australia's approach
Australia became the first country in the world to introduce a social media ban for kids in December last year. Last month, the Australian government published its first wave of findings on the experiences of more than 4,000 children and families since the ban took effect.
Australia only requires age-restricted platforms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent under-16s from creating or keeping accounts. However, Mr Burnham’s administration is expected to implement more stringent requirements.
Calls for bold action
Rowan Ferguson, of the Molly Rose Foundation, which campaigns to prevent young people being harmed by online content, called on the UK government to be “brave, bold and decisive in ways it hasn’t been before”.
He said: “As these changes only apply to US users, the UK government must heed this outcome and seize this opportunity to deliver a reset to children’s online safety across all platforms. Andy Burnham has now seen it is possible to take on Big Tech to address drivers of online harm.”
Government response
A government spokesperson said: “While this is a matter for Meta and the US courts, we are following developments closely. The Online Safety Act, which applies in the UK, requires platforms to protect users under 18 from harmful content. We are already taking further steps to promote British children's wellbeing and protect them from online harms by introducing a social-media ban for under-16s next year. We are also taking action on harmful features and addictive functionalities like limiting excess screen time and infinite scroll.”
The ban is scheduled to be introduced next year, alongside measures targeting harmful features and addictive functionalities on platforms.
