Limit social media ban for under-16s to unsafe apps, Starmer urged | Technology
Online safety campaigners have called on Keir Starmer to block under-16s from accessing social media apps that do not meet strict security standards, rather than imposing a broader Australian-style ban.
The NSPCC, the Molly Rose Foundation and a Smartphone-Free Childhood said technology platforms should not be allowed to offer young people “risky” features such as infinite scrolling, disappearing messages and push notifications.
“We ask you to take immediate action to require technology platforms to meet strict safety standards to continue providing services to those under 16,” they wrote in a letter to the Prime Minister.
“We believe that the binary debate between banning or banning children from social media may oversimplify a complex issue. Instead, the ability of platforms to continue providing accounts and services to children should be made contingent on their ability to demonstrate that they are safe.”
In Australia, where access to applications such as Instagram and TikTok is restricted for people under the age of 16, age restrictions It applies if a service enables social interaction between two or more users and allows users to post material. Instead, campaigners in the UK are calling for a system that limits access to platforms based on whether they are “safe” or not.
The letter was sent a week before the UK government’s consultation on new online safety measures, including a potential ban on under-16s, closes. The consultation also seeks views on whether features such as live streaming and location sharing should be restricted. The government has promised to take some form of action following consultations.
Campaigners expect apps to be reviewed before they can be accessed by people under 16. New features will also undergo security checks before being released. The UK’s legal framework for social media regulation, the Online Safety Act, is overseen by communications watchdog Ofcom.
The letter aims to unify campaigners’ positions on the under-16 ban. While the MRF and NSPCC have stopped short of calling for an official age limit, arguing it would represent a “cliff edge” in terms of safety for young people, Smartphone-Free Childhood has called for access to be restricted for those under 16, in line with similar calls for limits on smartphones.
“The most important part of this moment is that nonprofits are uniting around a simple principle: Access to our children should be seen as a privilege to be earned, not an automatic right,” said Joe Ryrie, Director of Smartphone-Free Childhoods.
Andy Burrows, chief executive of MRF, a charity set up by the family of British teenager Molly Russell, who committed suicide after viewing harmful online content, said the government should ensure secure app design is “a prerequisite for technology firms to do business in the UK”. The letter was also signed by the Future of Technology Institute think tank, campaign group FlippGen and the People Against Big Tech coalition.
A government spokesman said ministers shared the group’s determination to keep children safe online and that it was “a question of how we act, not whether we act”.
