House of Lords push for Australian-style social media ban for under-16s | Social media ban
The House of Lords has backed an Australian-style social media ban on under-16s.
By 266 to 141, Peers rejected Keir Starmer’s proposal for a public consultation to decide whether to introduce the ban.
Conservative former minister Lord Nash said the vote sent a “clear message” to the Starmer government.
“For the second time tonight, the House of Lords has sent a clear message to the government: empty promises and half-measures are not enough,” Nash said in a statement.
This is the second time Nash has pushed for under-16s to be banned from social media, after MPs voted against it earlier this month.
He said: “The fact that they are voting in greater numbers than before sends a very clear message to the government that they must take immediate action to raise the age limit for accessing harmful social media sites to 16.”
Nash said that “while we were voting, all of their peers were conscious that those watching from the gallery were grieving parents, parents who had lost their children to social media.”
“Delay has consequences,” he said.
It comes after a jury in Los Angeles found Meta, which owns Google and Facebook, deliberately designed addictive products to harm the 20-year-old’s mental health.
A California jury has ruled that Meta and Google’s video streaming platform YouTube must pay at least $3 million (£2.25 million) in damages to the woman, who said she was addicted to social media as a child and that it worsened her mental health problems. TikTok and Snap reached a settlement before the hearing began.
The decision could affect the outcome of thousands of similar lawsuits in the United States accusing social media companies of intentional harm.
Nash, who suggested introducing an age limit as part of the bill on children’s health and schools, said that “technicians” took a “suspicious approach” towards content that harms children.
Nash said the Los Angeles court’s decision shows that the platforms are designed to be addictive and that lawmakers have a chance to take action.
“We will not accept half measures or further delays. We need leadership to give our children their childhood back,” he said.
More than 20 family members were seated in the gallery, including George and Areti Nicolaou, holding a photo of their son Christoforos, who committed suicide after joining an online forum.
Paediatrician and cross-examiner Lady Cass said the government “failed to understand the impact of social media on our children”.
He said: “The government is approaching social media from a very, very narrow perspective.
“They fixate on the psychological aspects of the incident, which are hugely important, but fail to look at the broader dimensions and direct harms that are being repeated over and over again, both in schools, clinics and by the families now sitting in the gallery.
“And to continue to make headlines with these kinds of cheap efforts by saying we are piloting something that will not give us any information is disrespectful to these families and the trauma inflicted on the people directly harmed.”
with PA
