Peers urged to vote for social media ban for under-16s

Peers in the House of Lords have been urged to vote in support of a ban on social media for under-16s in the UK.

Lord Nash, a former schools minister, has proposed a change to a bill, which would raise the age limit for users of social media. The legislation is being debated on Wednesday evening.

It comes amid calls for the UK government to follow Australia in imposing a social media ban for young people – the world’s first – last year.

But some campaigners and children’s charities have opposed the move, which Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has not ruled out.

Earlier this week, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall announced a “swift” consultation on measures to “keep children safe online” and seek views on the effectiveness of a ban.

It will assess the merits of a ban for under-16s, as well as overnight curfews and actions to prevent “doom-scrolling”.

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 England’s education inspectorate, 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.

Conservative peer Lord Nash argued there was no need for a consultation, partly because polling showed “the vast majority of parents want it”.

“There is a huge volume of evidence in academic studies around the world that show quite clearly that excessive use of social media is damaging to children’s health,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

He said his amendment proposed “highly effective age verification”.

“The social media companies are perfectly capable, and have told me this, of putting in place highly effective age verification.”

He added: “We’re just asking for a few more years for children to mature so that they do have to deal with social media at 16, they’re more likely to distinguish fact from fiction and they can make better judgements.”

Lord Nash’s amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has been co-sponsored by Labour peer Baroness Berger, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Benjamin and independent crossbench peer Baroness Cass.

However, if the amendment passed in the Lords, it could be overturned in the House of Commons by MPs at a later stage.

On Sunday, more than 60 Labour MPs wrote to the prime minister saying they backed a ban with the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey also calling on the government to act.

Baroness Kidron, an online safety campaigner who founded and chairs the 5Rights Foundation, said there had been a “growing call” for a social media ban for under-16s.

The independent crossbench peer said support from more than 60 Labour MPs for a ban was “crucial” should the Lords approve the amendment.

Baroness Kidron told the BBC’s Politics Live programme: “It means that there’s at least 60 people on the government benches who are not willing to just walk through [the division lobbies] and overturn it.

“So that’s why it’s become a huge thing.”

Baroness Kidron said the government had brought forward a “hastily created consultation”.

She said she was “absolutely furious” because “the consultation is not really on the main point of child safety, it’s actually a bit of party management trying to deal with their own backbench revolt”.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy defended the “short and sharp” three-month consultation, noting there were “mixed views that have been put forward about how you tackle this”.

She said: “I just want to say to anybody listening at home, because like them I have a little boy and it keeps me awake at night thinking about some of the things he is exposed to online, I do want to say that we are consulting on what we do not whether we do something.

“We will tighten the law, we will introduce greater enforcement powers and we will introduce other measures as well, and we’re consulting on how we best go about that in order to take swift action to deal with what is a problem for every single family in this country.”

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

“The prime minister is trying to copy an announcement that the Conservatives made a week ago, and still not getting it right,” she said.

The Liberal Democrats have called for film-style age ratings to protect children.

Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said there was “no time to waste in protecting our children from social media giants” and “this consultation risks kicking the can down the road yet again”.