Keir Starmer has not yet given his full support to a social media ban for under-16s. But on Monday the Prime Minister announced a series of measures to limit the harm ministers believe online platforms are causing to children who use them.
“As a father of two teenagers, I know the challenges and concerns that parents face in ensuring that their children are safe online,” the prime minister said in a statement.
Here are three concrete actions announced by the government on Monday.
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Starmer has announced a consultation on setting a minimum age for social media.
However, before the consultation takes place, ministers will write a clause into the existing Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that will enable them to immediately implement the ban, if that is what the consultation recommends.
These so-called Henry VIII powers allow the government to use secondary legislation to impose age limits, rather than writing an entirely new bill. This would speed up the process of enforcing sanctions, but critics worry it could weaken Parliament’s ability to scrutinize the crackdown.
The government also said on Monday that the consultation would include measures such as restricting infinite scrolling for people under 16 and setting age limits on virtual private networks, which could be used to circumvent other online restrictions.
Downing Street said MPs and peers would be given the opportunity to vote on any action taken as a result of the consultation.
However, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson could not say whether either House would be given a chance to fully debate and amend the measures.
“Both Houses must approve secondary legislation that will provide the policies,” Number 10 said.
“Doing this now is about taking proactive steps through the correct parliamentary channels to be ready to start taking action on the results of the consultation as soon as possible.”
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2. Online security rules extend to AI chatbots
Last month Keir Starmer fought a battle with Elon Musk and arguably won.
The Prime Minister called on the boss of
Ministers argued at the time that the Online Safety Act gave regulators the power to take action against Ax. However, Ofcom admitted that although it could take action against chatbots that were already being used to search for content on the internet, it did not have the power to do anything about artificially generated content.
The Online Safety Act requires social media companies to take steps to prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography or material related to self-harm. Now the minister wants that chatbots should also come under the same rules.
“These AI chatbots are forming friendships with children that can take them to all sorts of places they shouldn’t go,” Starmer told the BBC on Monday.
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In April 2022, 14-year-old Jules Sweeney was found dead in her bedroom. His mother Ellen Roome believes his death was the result of a viral TikTok challenge gone wrong, but she has been unable to access Jules’ social media data that might prove her right.
Since then, Roome has campaigned for “Jules’ Law” which would require online platforms to preserve a child’s data as soon as they are notified of their death. The Government will now amend the Crime and Policing Bill to ensure this happens within five days of a death being reported and to make the data accessible to the coroner or Ofcom.
