Trials to form part of three-month consultation on Keir Starmer’s plans to tackle negative effects of smartphone use
Hundreds of teenagers will be enlisted to trial social media bans in the coming months with overnight digital curfews and daily screen time limits also tested as part of Keir Starmer’s plan to crack down on the negative effects of smartphone use.
The trials will be part of a three-month consultation launched this week that could lead to an outright ban on social media for under-16s similar to that introduced in Australia. Ministers have said they are ready to toughen laws just six months after the introduction of child protection measures in the Online Safety Act.
“There is growing agreement that more needs to be done,” the government said in a statement announcing what it called “the world’s most ambitious consultation on social media”. It added: “The contributions to this consultation will determine how the government will decide what that looks like.”
The consultation will consider whether there should be a minimum age to use social media, and if so, what that age should be; whether platforms should be required to switch off addictive features such as infinite scrolling and autoplay that keep children hooked late into the night; whether mandatory overnight curfews would help children sleep better and at what age they should apply; and how age verification enforcement should be strengthened.
