Prime Minister Keir Starmer has told tech bosses that ‘things can’t go on like this’ as he summoned them into Downing Street to talk about the risks children face online
Keir Starmer has told tech bosses that “things can’t go on like this” as he summoned them into Downing Street to talk about the risks children face online.
The Prime Minister hinted at the possibility of measures to “restrict” children’s access to social media sites as pressure mounts on him to take action. He hauled senior figures from X, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and Google – which owns YouTube – into No10 on Thursday to demand further protections for kids.
Opening the meeting, Mr Starmer told the tech bosses: “Things can’t go on like this, they must change because right now social media is putting our children at risk. In a world in which children are protected, even if that means access is restricted, that is preferable to a world where harm is the price of participation.”
The Prime Minister added: “I am determined we will build a better future for our children, and look forward to working with you on this. I do think this can be done. I think the question is not whether it is done, the question is how it is done.”
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Downing Street afterwards said the “key ask” was that companies “must be able to show real-world changes that make their platforms safer for children” and that “there must be no delay in them taking action”. “The message was simple – no free pass, no delay in putting children’s safety first,” No10 said.
Attendees included Wifredo Fernandez, X’s director of global government affairs; Alistair Law, TikTok’s director of public policy and government affairs for Northern Europe; Markus Reinisch, Meta’s vice president for public policy in Europe; and Kate Alessi, vice president and managing director of Google UK and Ireland.
Bereaved families on Wednesday warned the PM that the UK risks falling behind other countries after Australia implemented a ban for under 16s in December. Other European countries including Spain and Greece have similar plans.
MPs rejected a Lords’ amendment calling for a ban for under 16s on Wednesday night by 256 to 150 votes. The Government did not support the amendment – and told Labour MPs to vote it down – as it is currently consulting on a range of online safety measures, including a social media ban, as well as curbing addictive features on apps or introducing overnight curfews.
Mr Starmer has refused to set out a timeline for when the government might start to bring in changes. Asked whether he would act by the summer, the Prime Minister told LBC after the No10 meeting: “We’ll get through the consultation, obviously, but the reason we took the powers early was to make sure that once the consultation is over and we’ve evaluated it, we can move very quickly.”
Ellen Roome, who believes her 14-year-old son Julian “Jools” Sweeney died while attempting an online challenge, criticised the Downing Street meeting as a “stunt”.
She said: “Social media companies have sat in rooms with parents like me – parents who have lost their children – and heard exactly what their platforms do. They have heard it in meetings and they have heard it in courtrooms. And still they do nothing. This meeting will be no different. It is just a stunt designed to distract from the fact that the Government told its own MPs to vote against raising the age limit.”
But other bereaved families and campaigners urge caution before rushing into an outright ban amid worrying signs out of Australia.
Research co-produced by the Molly Rose Foundation shows three in five (61%) Australian 12 to 15 year-olds still have access to one or more accounts despite a social media ban coming into force in the country at the end of last year.
Andy Burrows, the charity’s chief executive, said: It’s time to look beyond this false sense of safety and for the Prime Minister to decisively commit to strengthening regulation to make unsafe and addictive design a thing of the past.”