No online platform will get a “free pass” on children’s safety on the internet in new plans, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The government is pledging to close loopholes in existing laws designed to protect children online and will consult on a social media ban for under-16s as part of its online safety plans.
There are also plans to introduce powers to swiftly change the law in response to evolving online behaviours, and to update legislation to protect children’s social media and online data, as advocated by the group Jools’ Law.
Opponents accused the government of “inaction”, and have called for Parliament to be given a vote on the social media ban for children.
The government had already said it would launch a public consultation in March to seek opinions on restricting children’s access to AI chatbots and limiting infinite-scroll features, also known as doomscrolling.
It follows arguments between ministers and X’s Elon Musk earlier this year, after the platform’s Grok AI chatbot was used to make fake nude images of women.
Ahead of launching the consultation, Sir Keir said: “The action we took on Grok sent a clear message that no platform gets a free pass.”
“Technology is moving really fast, and the law has got to keep up. With my government, Britain will be a leader, not a follower, when it comes to online safety,” he said.
Other measures being considered include preventing children from using virtual private networks (VPNs) to illicitly access pornography and amending the law so chatbots have to protect users from illegal content.
There are also plans to change the rules governing how children’s social media data is stored under the Crime and Policing Bill, following the Jools’ Law campaign.
In 2022, Ellen Roome’s son, Jools, died at age 14. She believes he was attempting an online challenge that went wrong, but has never been able to access his data to prove it.
Under current rules, a child’s data must be requested from tech companies within 12 months of their death by either a coroner or the police.
But bereaved parents often say that by the time that happens, this record of what their child has been doing online has already been deleted.
New rules will require it to be preserved within five days if it may be relevant to the cause of death, which should help more families get answers.
“This going forward will help other bereaved families,” Roome said. “What we now need to do is stop the harm happening in the first place. This is really relevant when a child dies, but we need to stop them dying in the first place.”
Lord Nash, a Conservative former minister who has been campaigning in the Lords for tighter social media controls for children, welcomed the adoption of Jools’ Law by the government.
But, he said to avoid “future tragedies”, the “government must raise the age limit to 16 for the most harmful platforms now”.
Shadow education secretary Laura Trott described the consultation announcement as “inaction”, and said Britain was “lagging behind. “I am clear that we should stop under-16s accessing these platforms,” she said.
Liberal Democrat spokeswoman Munira Wilson, too, accused the government of continuing to “kick the can down the road” and called for a “much clearer, firm timeline” on when action will be taken.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the government was “determined to give children the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future at a time of rapid technological change” and would “not wait” to take the action families needed.
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