House of Lords Backs Bill to Ban Social Media for Under 16s

The House of Lords has backed a ban on social media use for under-16s in the UK, mirroring steps taken by Australia in recent years.

 

Last week, a group of 61 Labour MPs published an open letter on social media, urging the Prime Minister to impose a social media ban on children under 16 in the UK.

 

According to the letter, at home, the average 12-year-old now spends nearly 29 hours a week on a smartphone, much of it on social media platforms engineered to be addictive and frequently saturated with harmful content. 

 

 

The impact on young people’s mental health is becoming increasingly stark: in England, more than 500 children a day are referred for anxiety-related conditions alone. Research also shows that for teenage boys, increasing social media use from nine to five hours a day is associated with a doubling of depression rates, while for girls, the rate of depression triples.

 

“We believe the onus must be placed on technology platforms, not parents, to prevent underage access. We would support a model similar to Australia’s that requires companies to take meaningful steps to enforce age limits,” reads the letter.

 

On January 21, the House of Lords overwhelmingly voted in favour of the proposed amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, with 261 votes in favour. The amendment would also require the chief medical officers to publish guidance for parents on children’s use of social media.

 

The bill is set to become law unless members of parliament vote to strike down the amendment when the bill returns to the House of Commons for voting.

 

Under the amendment, the government would be given 12 months to decide which platforms should be restricted for under-16s, while companies would be required to introduce highly effective age-checking measures to control access.