Keir Starmer has backed banning addictive social media features in his strongest intervention yet on curbs that could be placed on tech companies, saying the features \u201cshouldn\u2019t be permitted\u201d.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said the government was \u201cgoing to have to act\u201d on the algorithms that hook young people and children to social media, such as scrolling or \u201cstreaks\u201d that encourage daily usage of apps.<\/p>\n
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson<\/a>, said social media was \u201cdesigned to keep you there\u201d and that the government\u2019s consultation on use of social media would look closely at how addictive features could be tackled.<\/p>\n The comments come after a case in the US against Meta and Google<\/a>, which found the companies liable for a woman\u2019s childhood social media addiction and awarded $6m in damages. The companies plan to appeal.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Sunday Mirror<\/a>, Starmer said: \u201cThis is the platforms trying to get children to stay on for longer, to get addicted. I can\u2019t see that there\u2019s a case for that, and therefore I can see we\u2019re going to have to act.\u201d<\/p>\n Starmer said he was \u201copen-minded\u201d about a ban on social media for under-16s, which has been enacted in Australia, but said there would be significant changes after the consultation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll go through the consultation, but I think I\u2019ll be absolutely clear, things will not stay as they are. This is going to change. I don\u2019t think the next generation would forgive us if we didn\u2019t act now.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on Sunday after the government published new guidance for under-fives\u2019 screentime<\/a>, Phillipson said there were different options under consultation.<\/p>\n \u201cI think as an adult it\u2019s hard to escape the conclusion that some of this is designed to get your attention and to keep your attention. Now, that\u2019s one thing for an adult, but of course we have to think pretty seriously about what that means for the developing brains of younger children,\u201d she told the BBC\u2019s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show.<\/p>\n Asked if sites were designed to be addictive, Phillipson said: \u201cI think they intend to keep you there. I think that is the intention now, and we are clear through the consultation that we\u2019re going to look at the addictive features and some of the algorithmically driven content we know can be damaging for our youngest children.\u201d<\/p>\n She said a ban on addictive algorithms for younger users was \u201csomething we\u2019re considering through that wider consultation about young people overall. We are also looking at all of those questions around social media and whether there should be an age limit around the digital age of consent, around questions around addictive content, algorithmically driven content.\u201d<\/p>\n During the consultation, hundreds of UK teenagers will trial social media bans<\/a>, digital curfews and time limits on apps as part of a government pilot. A proportion of 300 teenagers across all four nations of the UK will have their social apps disabled, \u201cmimicking the enforcement of a social media ban at home\u201d.<\/p>\n