MP pleas for ‘doomscrolling’ social media crackdown for underneath 16s

A Labour MP has urged the government to support his plans to make social media “less addictive” for children under 16.

Former teacher Josh MacAlister is calling for measures to stop kids “doomscrolling” – when they repeatedly spend time viewing negative content online.

The Warrington MP said governments across the world were now “waking up to concerns” of parents and teachers to the effect of excess screen time.

“It’s displacing a huge amount of time that kids used to spend in real life interacting with people,” he told the BBC.

In recent weeks Australia’s government has also proposed “word leading” legislation to ban children under 16 from social media. While not proposing a complete ban on kids using social media, Mr MacAlister wants to tackle “addictive by-design features”.

He said: “I’m not proposing to ban social media for under 16s but I am putting forward a number of measures that would make it much less addictive for children using smartphones and social media under the age of 16.”

“I want us to raise the age at which a child is able to give their permission for data-sharing from 13 to 16.

“That would have the effect of making it much harder for tech companies to use children’s data to feed algorithms that then feed stuff back to children that is very addictive.”

The backbencher’s Safer Phones Bill is expected to be published in the coming weeks before being debated in the Commons in March 2025. But Mr MacAlister is said to have dropped plans for a legal ban on smartphones in schools after No10 made clear guidance is already in place.

He added: “I’m working with the Labour government to try and get their support for those measures. My hope is that I can persuade ministers that these are a set of actions that are worth taking and they’ll work.”

No10 spokeswoman said: “When it comes to private members’ bills we’ll set out our position in due course.”