Social media 'should get cigarette-style warnings', Lib Dems to warn

'Addictive' content on social media should come with 'cigarette-style' health warnings to protect children, the Liberal Democrats will warn today.

The party is also proposing what it calls a 'doomscrolling cap' to limit the time that children can watch TikTok-style videos to two hours a day.

Lib Dem science and tech spokesman Victoria Collins is due to set out plans to tackle social-media algorithms that can be 'as addictive as a drug'.

Some 80 per cent of parents report that excessive phone usage affects their children's behaviour, leaving them skipping meals and not sleeping properly, research for the party has found.

A quarter of parents with school-aged children said their offspring had difficulty sleeping after using their phones too much, 18 per cent said it had affected their appetite and 13 per cent said it had given their children eye strain or headaches.

Social media 'should get cigarette-style warnings', Lib Dems to warn

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