UK ministers are drawing up options for restricting children’s use of social media, including a full ban on the use of apps.

Downing Street is accelerating discussions across Whitehall on the issue with officials working on an array of proposals that could be put to a public consultation within weeks.

The different options for restricting children’s smartphone overuse range from a full ban to more limited interventions. Those include restricting night-time use, banning certain types of content such as streaming or imposing tighter controls over algorithms that influence what viewers see.

Officials said that the British government was paying close attention to Australia’s ban on under-16s having social media accounts, which came into force in December.

There is also a precedent for limiting app use for children at certain times of day, with China’s version of TikTok — called Douyin — limiting under-14s to 40 minutes a day with access only between 6am and 10pm.

Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, has been urged to intervene by figures including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, health secretary Wes Streeting and Labour mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.

Starmer will come under fresh pressure next week when Lords will vote on a cross-party amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill calling for an Australia-style ban.

The amendment has signatories including Labour’s Baroness Luciana Berger, the Lib Dem Baroness Floella Benjamin and the Tory Lord John Nash. 

Berger told the FT that children and young people had been living through an experiment from tech platforms that were profiting from their stress, lack of sleep and diminished sense of self-worth. “The experiment on children is over,” she added.

Another amendment from the Liberal Democrats advocates a film-style system with age ratings to access certain platforms. That approach is backed by the NSPCC, the children’s charity, which said it believed that bans were “not the answer”, calling for a “risk-based approach” to minimum age-setting on platforms.

“A risk-based approach to minimum age-setting offers a clear way to incentivise companies to take meaningful action to improve their safety, in order to reduce their risk level,” it said. 

Labour ministers have previously insisted that there is not a proven causal link between screen time and children’s development — although they have said they are looking closely at the evidence base. 

But there has been growing parental concern about the issue, with pressure group Smartphone Free Childhood inspiring 154,000 emails to MPs urging intervention.

Daisy Greenwell from SFC said that a total ban was the most straightforward option because it would free children from the peer pressure of having to be on social media with their friends. “It would defuse the pressure of having to be on because everyone else is,” she added. 

Starmer has previously said that he does not support a total ban on social media for teenagers and children. 

But on Monday he told Labour MPs at their weekly meeting in parliament that he was deeply concerned about the impact of excessive smartphone use on young people. “I have been concerned about the issue for a very long time,” he said. 

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Australia is the first country in the world to have banned under-16s from having accounts on 10 apps deemed to be potentially harmful, including X and TikTok. Users now have to pass robust age-verification checks to access the sites, and several European countries including France, Spain and Italy are considering similar moves. One early consequence has been teenagers downloading various lesser-known social media apps such as Lemon8, Yope and Coverstar. 

A Downing Street spokesperson said the government knew that the issue was important to many parents.

“We need to protect children from social media. We’re looking at what is happening in Australia. All options are on the table in relation to what further protection to put in place,” he said. 

“It is an issue that is evolving . . . we will look at all international evidence and expertise to inform the right policy.”