The UK government is considering an Australian-style ban on social media for children along with a ban on addictive app features as part of consultations to curb harmful internet and smartphone use.
The consultation sets out options including setting a higher digital age of consent, imposing phone curfews to avoid excessive use, and restricting potentially addictive design features such as winning ‘streaks’ that enable ‘infinite scrolling’ of videos and pictures in games and on social media.
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure from within his own Labor Party to back restrictions including a minimum age to use social media sites like TikTok ahead of a vote in the House of Lords on Wednesday.
An amendment to the Children’s Welfare and Schools Bill currently going through the Lords would ban children under 16 from using social media, a policy that came into effect in Australia last month.
The amendment has signatories including Labour’s Baroness Luciana Berger, Liberal Democrat Baroness Floella Benjamin and Conservative Lord John Nash.
The consultation, which will be launched on Tuesday, has been expedited in an effort to draw political momentum from the amendment, according to a person close to the situation.
The consultation will seek views from parents as well as youth on the use of technology by children. Ministers will visit Australia to assess the effectiveness of a ban for children under 16 on apps considered potentially harmful, such as X and TikTok. Users are now required to undergo stronger age verification checks to access sites.
The UK government will also produce new screen time guidance for parents of children aged five to 16 to address concerns that too much time is spent in front of devices in young people’s lives.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said “parents still have serious concerns” despite the introduction of the Online Safety Act last year, which imposed strict age verification requirements on over-18 websites.
Strict guidance for schools on mobile phones would make it clear that they require phone-free environments and that pupils should not have access to their devices during lessons, at break times or between lessons. Ofsted inspectors will be asked to check whether the mobile phone ban is being properly enforced.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “There is no place for mobile phones in schools. No ifs and buts.”
Starmer had previously said that he did not support a complete ban on social media for teenagers and children, but has changed his stance in recent days.
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, accused the government of copying an announcement her party made a week earlier, “and still not getting it right”.
He said the Tories would “remove kids from these adult platforms altogether”.
