Online safety campaigners have urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to block under-16s from accessing social media apps that fail to meet strict safety standards, rather than implementing a broader Australia-style ban. The NSPCC, Molly Rose Foundation (MRF), and Smartphone Free Childhood argue that tech platforms should not be allowed to offer “risky” features to teenagers, such as infinite scrolling, disappearing messages, and push notifications.
Conditional Access for Safe Platforms
In a letter to the prime minister, the groups wrote: “We are asking you to act now to require tech platforms to meet strict safety standards to continue to offer their services to under-16s. We believe a binary debate between banning children from social media or not can oversimplify what is a complex issue. Instead, platforms’ continued ability to offer accounts and services to children should be made conditional on their ability to demonstrate that they are safe.”
In Australia, under-16s are restricted from accessing apps like Instagram and TikTok if the service enables social interaction between two or more users and allows users to post material. However, UK campaigners are advocating for a system that limits access based on whether a platform is deemed “safe” or not, rather than a blanket age restriction.
Consultation and Regulatory Framework
The letter was sent a week before the closing of a UK government consultation on new online safety measures, which includes a potential under-16 ban. The consultation also seeks views on restricting features such as livestreaming and location sharing. The government has pledged to take action based on the consultation’s findings. Campaigners expect apps to be vetted before under-16s can access them, and new features would undergo safety checks before launch. The UK’s Online Safety Act, overseen by Ofcom, provides the legal framework for social media regulation.
The letter aims to unify campaigners’ positions on an under-16 ban. While MRF and NSPCC have stopped short of calling for a formal age limit—arguing it would create a safety “cliff edge” for teenagers—Smartphone Free Childhood has called for access restrictions for under-16s, aligning with its broader calls for smartphone limits.
Industry and Government Response
Joe Ryrie, director of Smartphone Free Childhood, said: “What’s so significant about this moment is that organisations across civil society are aligning around a simple principle: access to our children should be treated as a privilege that must be earned, not an automatic right.” Andy Burrows, CEO of MRF—established by the family of Molly Russell, a teenager who took her own life after viewing harmful online content—said the government should ensure safe app design is a “precondition for tech firms to do business in the UK.” The letter was also signed by the Future of Technology Institute, FlippGen, and the People vs Big Tech coalition.
A government spokesperson said ministers share the group’s determination to keep children safe online, adding that it is not a question of “whether we will act, but how.”
