{"id":638996,"date":"2026-06-14T23:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638996\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T23:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:26:09","slug":"starmer-set-to-ban-under-16s-from-major-social-media-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638996\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer set to ban under-16s from major social media platforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to ban under-16s from major social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The government will also stop children being able to livestream on &#8220;safer&#8221; sites, and stop them being able to talk to strangers on gaming apps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ministers are considering whether to impose social media curfews for children, but further details will not be unveiled until next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Australia introduced the world&#8217;s first outright ban on social media for under-16s in December 2025 and Whitehall sources are describing the UK&#8217;s scheme, to be unveiled by Sir Keir on Monday morning, as &#8220;Australia-plus&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This is a choice about whose side we&#8217;re on: families across the country, or a status quo that isn&#8217;t working,&#8221; Sir Keir said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He would, he said, &#8220;call time on a system that&#8217;s failing our kids&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While a government consultation has found a majority supports a social media ban for under-16s, some campaigners have said such sweeping measures would cause more problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/uk\/politics\/article\/social-media-ban-keir-starmer-qcmskxc5z\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Sunday Times reported, external<\/a> the prime minister was set to announce a ban covering the same 10 platforms now prohibited for under-16s in Australia: TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, but also YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, X, Threads, Facebook and Kick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It said the UK would &#8220;go further&#8221; than Australia with additional measures including curfews for older teenagers and restrictions on AI chatbots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sir Keir said: &#8220;How we keep kids safe online is one of the biggest debates of our time. As a dad, I know every parent wants their child to grow up safe and happy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This is a choice about whose side we&#8217;re on: families across the country, or a status quo that isn&#8217;t working.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;People rightly expect action, and this government will always stand up for parents and put children first.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That&#8217;s why we will call time on a system that&#8217;s failing our kids and take bold action to give every child the best possible start in life.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to ban under-16s from major social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-638996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638996","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=638996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}