Dozens of Labour MPs signal letter urging Australia-style social media ban for under-16s | EUROtoday

More than 60 Labour MPs have signed an open letter urging the prime minister to again an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s.

The letter, understood to be authored by Plymouth Moor View MP Fred Thomas, calls on the federal government to take motion to “protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms”.

It asks Sir Keir Starmer to implement a blanket ban on social media platforms for youngsters beneath 16. Calls comply with Australia’s legislation, which got here into impact in December.

open picture in gallery

“Across our constituencies, we hear the same message: children are anxious, unhappy and unable to focus on learning,” it reads. “They are not building the social skills needed to thrive, nor having the experience that will prepare them for adulthood.”

The letter, signed by dozens of backbenchers in addition to schooling choose committee chair Helen Hayes, former whip Vicky Foxcroft, and former schooling minister Catherine McKinnell, says Britain dangers being “left behind” if it doesn’t act.

The MPs stated they imagine the federal government should place the “onus” to forestall underage entry to platforms on know-how firms fairly than mother and father.

“We all know the harm social media causes to young people’s mental health,” Mr Thomas wrote in a submit on X alongside photos of the letter.

“The Labour Govt has acted in recent months. Today, 61 Labour MPs have written to the PM urging him to go further. We back an Australia-style model with the onus on tech firms to block under-16s access.”

Last week, Sir Keir Starmer stated that “all options are on the table” relating to the potential for an Australia-style social media ban throughout a go to to Scotland.

open picture in gallery

“We need to better protect children from social media,” he stated. “We’re looking at what’s happening in Australia, but all options are on the table in relation to what further protections we can put in place, whether that’s under-16s on social media, all options on the table.”

The letter says that public assist for the measures is “strong”, including that younger individuals themselves additionally recognise the potential hurt brought on by social media.

Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch beforehand stated she would introduce an under-16s ban if her social gathering gained the subsequent election.

But numerous distinguished on-line security and kids’s charities have spoken out in opposition to a ban, warning it will be the “wrong solution”.

In a letter revealed on Saturday, the NSPCC, Childnet, and suicide prevention charity the Molly Rose Foundation all stated they imagine a blanket ban would “create a false sense of safety” that might see kids and predators transfer to different, much less regulated, corners of the web.