UK to consult on social media ban for under 16s

The government has launched a consultation on banning social media for under-16s in England as part of a series of measures it says aim to “protect the welfare of young people”.

The package will also give England’s education inspectorate, Ofsted, powers to control policies on phone use in schools, with ministers saying they expect schools to be “phone-free by default” as a result.

The world’s first social media ban on young people comes into force In Australia in December 2025It prompted other countries, including Britain, to consider the same case.

Some experts and children’s charities I was warned against this idea – but it has strong support elsewhere.

More than 60 Labor MPs on Sunday I wrote to the prime minister The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey said she supported the ban and called on the government to take action.

“Some argue that vulnerable children should access social media to find their communities,” Brianna’s mother Esther Ghey wrote in a letter seen by the BBC.

“As the parent of an extremely vulnerable and transgender child, I completely disagree with this.

“In Brianna’s case, social media limited her ability to participate in real-world social interactions. She had real friends, but she chose to live online instead.”

Former schools standards minister Catherine McKinnell, one of the MPs who signed the open letter to Sir Keir Starmer, told BBC News parents are currently “unprepared to deal with the pace at which social media is changing”.

Speaking on BBC 5Live’s Breakfast, he added that he believes children still need to be able to “connect in an online world” but that this does not mean being “bombarded with information sent to you by algorithms designed by tech companies to create money”.

Technology Minister Liz Kendall told the House of Commons on Tuesday: “I can tell the House that we will launch a rapid three-month consultation process on further measures to keep children safe online.”

According to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology, advice It will “seek the views of parents, young people and civil society” to determine the effectiveness of the ban.

It will also look at whether more robust age checks can be implemented by social media firms, who may be forced to remove or limit features that “lead to compulsive use of social media.”

Ofsted to provide stricter guidance to schools to reduce phone use; including telling staff not to use their devices in front of students for personal reasons.

On Monday, Kendall said the laws in the Online Safety Act “are never the be-all and end-all” and said he understands “parents still have serious concerns.”

“We are determined to ensure that technology enriches children’s lives and does not harm them, and to give every child the childhood they deserve,” he said.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has already said his party would do this. Social media ban on people under the age of 16 if he were in power.

He said the consultation was “further indecision and delay” from Labor.

“The Prime Minister is trying to copy the announcement the Conservatives made a week ago but still can’t get it right,” he said.

Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said there was “no time to waste protecting our children from social media giants” and that “this consultation risks being scrapped once again”.

National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede described the move as a “welcome change”.

“Parents and teachers see every day how social media shapes children’s identities and attention spans long before they sit their GCSEs, drawing them into isolating, endless loops of content,” he said.

The Association of School and College Leaders also welcomed the consultation on social media but said the government had been “slow” to respond to online risks to children.

Pepe Di’Iasio, the union’s general secretary, said there was “clearly a much wider problem with children and young people spending too much time on screens and being exposed to inappropriate content”.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, also welcomed plans for a consultation on a potential social media ban.

But he said Ofsted’s proposal to “control” phones in schools was “deeply unhelpful and misguided”.

“School leaders need government support, not the threat of harsh enforcement,” he added.

It comes as the government faces additional pressure from the House of Lords, which is expected to vote on the proposed ban on Wednesday.

The amendment to the Children’s Welfare and Schools Bill has received support from prominent figures including former children’s TV presenter Baroness Benjamin and former education secretary Lord Nash.

There is also a separate change has called for the introduction of movie-style age ratings that could limit the social media apps children can access.

Professor Amy Orben, who directs the Digital Mental Health program at the University of Cambridge’s MRC Cognitive and Brain Sciences Unit, told the BBC there was “broad agreement” needed to keep children safe online.

But he said there was still “no strong evidence” that age-based social media bans were effective.

Dr Holly Bear, from the University of Oxford, whose work focuses on developing, evaluating and implementing mental health interventions for young people, agreed that the evidence on the effects of the social media ban was “still emerging”.

“A balanced approach would be to try to reduce algorithm-driven exposure to harmful content, improve safeguards, support digital literacy and carefully consider any significant policy interventions,” he said.

NSPCC, Childnet and suicide prevention charity Molly Rose Foundation He was among 42 individuals and organizations who argued Saturday that a ban would be the “wrong solution.”

“This will create a false sense of security that will cause both children and the threats to them to migrate to other areas online,” the organizations wrote.

“However well-intentioned, sweeping bans on social media will fail to deliver the improvements in children’s safety and well-being that they urgently need.”