Tech firms could earn an exemption to an incoming UK social media ban if they make their platforms safe for under 16s, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has suggested
Tech firms could earn an exemption to an incoming UK social media ban if they make their platforms safe for under 16s, the Culture Secretary has suggested.
In a panel at Labour conference, Lisa Nandy said social media giants could get themselves removed from a list of banned platforms if they tackle unsafe features.
The Cabinet minister said ministers will draw up a list of existing applications that will face restrictions but that they would also look at “safety by design” and a “safety by feature-led approach”.
“We’re going to do proper, comprehensive legislation so that it doesn’t just incorporate the specific apps, it incorporates the features that we believe are not safe,” Ms Nandy told the event, which was hosted by the Molly Rose Foundation (MRF).
“So there will be a way for companies, if they want to innovate and they want to change, to be able to get themselves essentially off that list. But that’s up to them. We believe that’s their choice. They can decide to innovate if they want to, and we believe they should because we think they have their social and moral obligations. But whether they do it or not, the government has an obligation here and we intend to act.”
Ms Nandy said it was a “sign of failure” it had got to a point that children needed to be banned from platforms, after years of inaction from tech firms and the failure of the Online Safety Act to have made enough of an impact. She said: “I do think it’s a sign of failure that we’ve got to the place as a country where we’re having to take children off social media altogether because we cannot protect them from harm. I do not want us to be in this position as a country. “
The Culture Secretary – who picked up the online safety brief after Andy Burnham became PM – added: “You can expect to see a very different approach from this iteration of the Labour government led by Andy Burnham. We believe that it is uniquely wrong that we have allowed the online spaces to be treated as private spheres, policed and regulated only by the private sector.
“We believe there is a really strong role for the government here to step up and you can expect to see a much more interventionist government in this area.” She pointed to the Government’s recent commitment to introduce legislation to require tech platforms to build in device-level protections for children as an example.
Keir Starmer announced a social media ban for under 16s as one of his final acts as Prime Minister in June. But, until now, few details have been revealed about how the ban will work, including which apps it will apply to. Legislation is set to be introduced by the end of the year to enforce the ban, which is due to come into effect in early 2027.
Canada is among countries to propose an earned exemption from a ban if social media firms implement effective safeguards. It differs from Australia’s outright ban of the big social media firms, including TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.
Sunday’s Labour conference event heard arguments from experts about the next steps following the social media ban announcement, including how to ensure young people aren’t isolated by the restrictions.
Andy Burrows, chief executive of the MRF, said any social media ban must continue to evolve, including any threshold that platforms must meet to get themselves removed from a list of banned sites. He told the panel: “If platforms do earn an exemption, that should be stretching. It should be reviewed. It should be added to, I think, every year. And I think for us, we would see the Secretary of State being the ones who then compile that list.”
Asked if there should be a new online safety regulator – separate to Ofcom – Maeve Walsh, director at the Online Safety Network, told the panel that an interim route could include giving the Digital Regulations Cooperation Forum statutory powers. The forum brings together existing regulators that cover online safety, including Ofcom, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Competition and Markets Authority and the Office of Product Safety and Standards.
Ms Walsh said: “While the debate goes on as to whether you want a single digital regulator, giving that forum the power and the incentive for those regulators to cooperate properly would be really important.”