UK to seek the advice of on social media ban for below 16s | EUROtoday

The authorities will seek the advice of on whether or not social media needs to be banned for under-16s within the UK.

It mentioned “immediate action” would give Ofsted the ability to examine insurance policies on telephone use when it inspects faculties, and it anticipated faculties to be “phone-free by default” because of the announcement.

An identical ban took impact in Australia in December 2025, the primary of its sort on the earth. Other nations are mentioned to be contemplating such a regulation.

It comes after greater than 60 Labour MPs wrote to the prime minister in regards to the concern, with the mom of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey additionally calling on the federal government to behave.

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

“As the parent of an extremely vulnerable and trans child, I strongly disagree.

“In Brianna’s case, social media restricted her capability to have interaction in real-world social interactions. She had actual buddies, however she selected to dwell on-line as a substitute.”

According to The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, the consultation will “search views from mother and father, younger individuals and civil society” to determine the effectiveness of a ban.

It would also look at whether more robust age checks could be implemented by social media firms, which could be forced to remove or limit features “which drive compulsive use of social media”.

And Ofsted will give tougher guidance to schools to reduce phone use – including telling staff not to use their devices for personal reasons in front of pupils.

The government will respond to the consultation in the summer.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the laws in the Online Safety Act were “by no means meant to be the tip level” and said she understood “mother and father nonetheless have severe considerations”.

“We are decided to make sure know-how enriches kids’s lives, not harms them – and to provide each youngster the childhood they deserve,” she said.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has already said her party would introduce a social media ban for under-16s if it was in power.

She said the consultation was “extra dither and delay” from Labour.

“The prime minister is attempting to repeat an announcement that the Conservatives made per week in the past, and nonetheless not getting it proper,” she said.

Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said there was “no time to waste in defending our youngsters from social media giants” and “this session dangers kicking the can down the street but once more”.

National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede called the move a “welcome shift”.

“Every day, mother and father and academics see how social media shapes kids’s identities and a spotlight lengthy earlier than they sit their GCSEs, pulling them into isolating, countless loops of content material,” he mentioned.

The Association of School and College Leaders also welcomed the consultation on social media, but said the government had been “sluggish” in responding to the online risks posed to children.

The union’s general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said there was “clearly a a lot wider downside of kids and younger individuals spending far an excessive amount of time on screens and being uncovered to inappropriate content material”.

And Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, also welcomed the plans to consult on a potential social media ban.

But he said the suggestion that Ofsted should “police” phones in schools was “deeply unhelpful and misguided”.

“School leaders want help from authorities, not the specter of heavy-handed inspection,” he added.

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

The amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has backing from several prominent figures such as former children’s TV presenter Baroness Benjamin and former education minister Lord Nash.

There is also a separate amendment calling for the introduction of film-style age ratings which could limit the social media apps children can access.

Last week, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she would introduce an under-16s ban if her party won the next election.

Professor Amy Orben, who leads the Digital Mental Health programme at the University of Cambridge’s MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, told the BBC there was “broad settlement” more needed to be done to keep children safe online.

However, she said there was still “not robust proof” that age-based social media bans were effective.

Dr Holly Bear from Oxford University agreed evidence for the effects of a social media ban were “nonetheless unfolding”.

“A balanced strategy is likely to be attempting to scale back algorithm-driven publicity to dangerous content material, bettering safeguards, supporting digital literacy and punctiliously evaluating any main coverage interventions,” she said.

The NSPCC, Childnet, and suicide prevention charity the Molly Rose Foundation were among 42 individuals and bodies to argue a ban would be the “unsuitable resolution” on Saturday.

“It would create a false sense of security that may see kids – but in addition the threats to them – migrate to different areas on-line,” the organisations wrote.

“Though well-intentioned, blanket bans on social media would fail to ship the advance in kids’s security and wellbeing that they so urgently want.”