Social media ban ‘on the table’ as government to investigate impact on children

Tech secretary Peter Kyle has warned a social media ban for under-16s is ‘on the table’ if platforms do not take their duty of care seriously as the government launches a review into the impact of social media on the wellbeing of young people. 

As the global panic around kids using social media continues – with claims of links with depression, self-harm, eating disorders and access to inappropriate content – the pressure on international governments to step in is growing. 

The Australian government has pledged to ban social media for under-16s, and former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak weighed up an under-16 smartphone ban in the latter months of his premiership. 

Under a Labour government, there appears to be no less appetite for limiting the access of children to the doom scroll depths of social media, with the newly announced study aiming to provide additional evidence to guide Ofcom’s policing of digital spaces. 

The research project, launched on Wednesday, follows on from a 2019 review from the UK’s Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) examining the link between children’s mental health and screen time. 

The study found that there was an association between mental health problems in children and excessive use of devices, however, it was unable to prove a causal relationship. 

Further research from Prof Jonathan Haidt argued that there was a profound shift in young people’s mental health between 2010 and 2015, during which the mass adoption of smartphones took place. 

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said his department has fired the “starting gun on research which will help build the evidence base we need to keep children safe online”. 

The Online Safety Act was passed last year to give Ofcom more power to punish social media firms and digital content providers that host “harmful” material, particularly when accessible by children. 

Listen: UKTN’s exclusive interview with Almudena Lara, policy director at Ofcom 

Since the law was passed, the watchdog has been gathering views to determine how best to enforce the act’s requirements. 

To further guide Ofcom’s approach, the tech secretary has handed it a set of priorities for enforcement. 

Kyle’s priorities cover five areas: embedding safety into the design of platforms; ensuring transparency and accountability among platforms; keeping regulation “agile” as new harms – such as those from AI – emerge; creating an “inclusive” digital world that is “resilient” to harms and incorporating new technologies into Ofcom’s approach. 

“Keeping children safe online is a priority for this government. That is why today I will be the first secretary of state to exercise the power to set out my strategic priorities,” added Kyle. 

“From baking safety into social media sites from the outset, to increasing platform transparency, these priorities will allow us to monitor progress, collate evidence, innovate, and act where laws are coming up short.” 

There has been a growing chorus to regulate social media companies more stringently since a 2021 report by the Wall Street Journal uncovered internal documents from Meta allegedly showing it was aware of the toll its Instagram platform was having on teenage girls. 

Meta has since introduced greater parental controls on its platforms and recently partnered with British tech firm Yoti to tighten its age verification systems. 

In July, Chinese-owned social media app TikTok was fined nearly £2m by Ofcom for providing inaccurate parental controls data, in signs the watchdog is prepared to take action against social media firms where necessary. 

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