{"id":539971,"date":"2026-04-19T20:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T20:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/539971\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T20:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T20:50:12","slug":"under-16s-could-be-banned-from-using-ai-chatbots-minister-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/539971\/","title":{"rendered":"Under-16s could be banned from using AI chatbots, minister suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The government is considering banning children under the age of 16 from using AI chatbots, as part of its consultation to keep young people safe online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Technology minister Liz Kendall<\/a> said the government is looking at whether the use of AI chatbots should be subject to age restrictions, similar to those being considered for social media.<\/p>\n

Ministers have been under pressure to enforce an Australian-style ban on social media for young people<\/a>, as concerns grow about the impact it can have on children\u2019s welfare and development.<\/p>\n

The government has launched a consultation to gather public opinion on a ban, which will also look at how to limit addictive design features on AI chatbots and games.<\/p>\n

Asked on Sunday whether the government is considering banning AI chatbots for under-16s, Ms Kendall said: \u201cWe are certainly looking at whether there should be those age restrictions overall, as well as the individual features.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TechnologyTechnology minister Liz Kendall says the government is looking at whether AI chatbots should be covered by age restrictions (PA Media)<\/p>\n

Speaking on the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said: \u201cYou had a whole programme about AI chatbots, and we are going to bring them under the Online Safety Act. We\u2019ve already legislated to say that AI chatbots are brought under the Online Safety Act in terms of what\u2019s illegal, and we will also bring them in for what\u2019s harmful for children.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThe issue is not, let\u2019s be clear here, if we\u2019re going to act \u2013 but how.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the government\u2019s consultation having received nearly 50,000 responses, Ms Kendall has called on more young people to reply before it closes in five weeks, because the respondents so far only include around 6,000 children.<\/p>\n

Ms Kendall is set to meet with young people and the NSPCC to discuss how AI and technology are shaping childhood, at a Childhood in the Age of AI summit on Monday.<\/p>\n

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer hauled tech chiefs into Downing Street on Thursday, telling them that the risks faced by children on social media \u201ccan\u2019t go on like this\u201d, but could not guarantee action by the summer to crack down on the issue.<\/p>\n

Although there has been pressure from parents to ban under-16s from social media, some campaigners have warned lawmakers against \u201crushing into\u201d the move after it emerged that the government had carried out no internal modelling of the key impacts of such a ban.<\/p>\n

\"PeersPeers have twice voted to introduce an age limit in the Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, but MPs recently rejected another bid by the Lords to bar youngsters immediately from accessing social media (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n

Peers have twice voted to introduce an age limit in the Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, but MPs recently rejected another bid by the Lords to bar youngsters immediately from accessing social media platforms.<\/p>\n

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology revealed that it had \u201cnot done any modelling or analysis\u201d on the impact such measures would have in areas such as mental health, access to news, and how young people might bypass any restrictions.<\/p>\n

In response to a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted by the Press Association, the department said internal modelling had not been carried out because \u201cclear, agreed evidence does not currently exist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, a charity that works to improve online safety for young people, said: \u201cParents are rightly demanding action from government to protect children online, but they want solutions to be effective and safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is crucial the government follows all the available evidence about an under-16 social media ban before rushing into it, and the consultation provides an opportunity to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-539971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}