Keir Starmer tells MPs he is open to social media ban for young people
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/13/keir-starmer-tells-mps-he-is-open-to-australian-style-social-media-ban
Posted by printial
Keir Starmer tells MPs he is open to social media ban for young people
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/13/keir-starmer-tells-mps-he-is-open-to-australian-style-social-media-ban
Posted by printial
41 Comments
Well I for one am shocked – shocked! – that he’s open to the idea of slapping ID verification on more things.
I’ll be interested to see what happens with mental health of young people over the years if he does.
Also we’re going to be in this weird situation where children will not be allowed to use social media into the run up of an election and yet be trusted to also end up voting in the election depending on where their birthday lands.
Give 16 year olds the vote, then take away TikTok and instagram from people who’ll be 16-18 at the next election. It’s an interesting strategy…
Speaking as someone who grew up with social media, ban it. Social media can get fucked and I don’t think it offers really any benefits to children.
So are they being paid by VPN providers or ID Verification sites? 🤔
Can we ban it for adults next, getting rid of x and Facebook etc will save billions on mental health costs each year.
I’m not entirely sure if there is a logical argument against this kind of ban tbh.
People say it should be down to parents but as soon as kids in the same class have accounts set up then I can set how the attraction spreads like wildfire. At that point there is just too much pressure and most will give in.
We should wait and see how it goes in Australia after researchers are able to publish their findings there
>he had become alarmed at reports about five-year-olds spending hours in front of screens each day
It would be nice to hear an MP call these shitty parents out for once. It’s like the minute you have kids in this country you can do no wrong or something, god forbid they upset the mumsnet vote.
Not a fan of Starmer. However, I would support this. Too many kids are brainwashed online and have access to content that is not appropriate. The small communities they form lead to social contagion.
Please don’t, leave it down to parents to teach their children about this.
That’s where the education and the encouragement should lie.
Parents know their children best here.
I’d prefer some better regulation of social media. Less fake news, less bots, less rage bait, less inappropriate content. Make the social media companies responsible for what’s on their platforms. Banning it for young people isn’t actually fixing the issues as they’ll just find workarounds.
I’m glad, social media is cancer for young minds. We don’t even understand the full impact of it, however what we do know is pretty awful. The generation currently in school that haven’t had restrictions on mobile photos social media use are fucked. They won’t be able to hold down a meaningful job easily.
Cue all the redditors addicted to social media to chime in and say why its actually a bad thing.
I’ve spoke to friends who are middle school teachers and they despair, it’s clear that some kids have used social media as their primary outlet for years.
This stuff is harming kids and a lot. Just demanding parents take responsibility will do squat.
The issue is about how they enforce it, I’ve yet to see any reliable non invasive way to verify age online. I’d say the only benefit of social media in secondary was adding people on Facebook so that we could message easily (a lot more convenient than trading numbers), be it for social or schoolwork purposes.
At this point we might aswell lock off the whole Internet and just make our own heavily restricted version like north korea, Google is almost there.
They really want social media to die off then? It gets people addicted from a young and that continues into then being adults.
Obviously you’ve got a generation of 20-40 years already addicted.
It’s tricky, there are negatives of course but people will be exposed to socialism and actual news on social media in a way they aren’t from mainstream media. There’s many who only understand what’s happening in Palestine through tik tok. That is essential.
I guess they can get this information from YouTube. There’s still a lot of young people who can’t necessarily find friends who like the same things as them, and the internet allows that.
I’d say the positives outweigh the negatives, we just never hear about the positives.
Stupid and unenforceable idea. Social media, unfortunately, is part of life. It would be much better to start teaching kids about how to use it responsibly and how to identify propaganda/scams/etc.
Let’s observe the Australian experience and then implement this…I hate bans, but this makes sense
> Officials say Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, is also open to the idea of a ban, with a final decision expected within months.
Banning the app does nothing. NOTHING.
TEACH THESE PARENTS HOW TO PARENT.
SET UP GUIDES. SET UP PARENT SESSIONS.
Most smart phones these days have parental tools to mitigate all of these shit. As someone who has even left twitter and Facebook, banning the app for kids is not the fix. If they are going to ban it, might as well ban it for the populace. Otherwise, this is a knowledge issue.
….and tens of thousands of UK kids suddenly login to the darkweb for the first time…
Dear Daddy Government,
Please interfere with my life even more, and parent my children for me.
Regards,
Tax Cattle #135632583
Shouldn’t be limited to young people. Its all turned into a cesspool
Just to let everyone know, ‘banning kids’ from social media actually means ‘everyone in the UK needs to show their ID to login to facebook or any other social media’.
It means you and me and everyone else will have to show ID to use reddit, facebook, instagram, etc. Like the OSA but on steriods.
Which means your personal details and identity are more easily stolen by identity thieves and hackers, not to mention the government surveillance.
This has nothing to do with kids.
social media are one of thr few places that people can learn about political parties. hell its the place i found out i wanted to vote for a party i wont disclose bc why tf would i. but on the otherside its a place for people of a certain types to fester and grow and corrupt kid’s minds. look at andrew tate for example
I wish the government would wind it’s neck in and stop trying to be our parent!
It’s not so much “banning” social media that’s the issue. It’s HOW they’re going to do that, by forcing every one of you to surrender your personal ID and ability to exist online anonymously. The chilling effect that can have on legitimate speech can’t be underestimated given the governments continued crackdown on people’s rights to protest and be politically active without police interference.
All for this. I hate to say this, because privacy enthusiasts won’t like it, but it could also eventually lead to a bot/foreign interference utopia if they require age verification for social media users. When you talk to someone down the pub you know they’re a real human and unlikely to be a malign foreign actor deliberately poisoning public discourse. Guarantee that Russian stooges will be opposing this.
Due to VPNs it probably will almost certainly not do much, I still think it’s not a bad idea to at least try to protect kids, especially considering twitter etc have become infested with misogynist, racist types (probably quite a few bots/foreigners pretending to be British) etc.
Stops them seeing photos of the genocide he participated in I guess
1.) Online safety act bans under 18s from seeing anything the govt/ofcom deems inappropriate, including “extreme” political views (keep in mind questioning immigration is seen as extremism)
2.) Ban social media for under 16s
3.) Allow 16 year olds to vote
Yeah this doesn’t seem dodgy at all. In all seriousness I don’t think social media benefits many people, let alone kids, but this is all looking a bit “get them while they’re young” to me
Ah perfect. More reasons to have a digital id. More reasons for governments to lock down and track your movements online.
Don’t get me wrong, things need doing, but maybe focus on the parents that are doing this to their young children by throwing a screen in front of them from 3, and putting videos and games of things that have constant stimulation for the child. But you know where this is going. They’re trying every bloody angle of “save the children” in order to get rid of our privacy
> Keir Starmer has told MPs he is open to the idea of an Australian-style ban on social media for young people after becoming concerned about the amount of time children and teenagers are spending on their phones
Well ban video games and tv too then.
This sub only supports a social media ban because one half thinks it’s the reason they are a loser, and the other half thinks it is making voters more right wing.
It’s not the policy which is bad, it’s the potential methods in how it’s enforced we need to be vigilant of
Ban everything. This trend of mindless authoritarianism surely will have no negative long term progressions. World governments are jumping with joy, they don’t even have to try to convince people to allow it. Could better education be the solution? No. I’m assuming it is mostly Russian bots in the comments pushing for this because the only thing this achieves is letting the government have more control over you.
And in order to enforce this ban youll have to upload your ID to verify yourself on every social media platform you use.
Everything from Reddit to YouTube to Facebook and X will want it.
What they’re really trying to do is remove anonymity on the Internet.
Any reasonable adult can see the dangers of social media if they use it themselves.
If I watch one video with the slightest bit of violence, more start to appear more often and more graphic.
Same with sexualized material.
The issue here falls to parents control and attention but more so social media companies for their algorithms, not sure a ban is the solution.
There’s a workaround for all these things and teens will find it faster than the parents.
He’s probably open to a social media ban for everyone tbh, probably a media ban too if it’s not the state newspaper