LONDON: British Prime Minister \u200cKeir Starmer is set to announce a ban on \u201charmful\u201d online platforms for children under 16 while maintaining access to some safer forms \u200bof social media, the Times newspaper reported on Monday.<\/p>\n
Starmer, who is due to make a speech later on Monday, is said to have decided to proceed with restrictions after speaking to bereaved parents and considering evidence from Australia, which brought in a ban for under-16s last December.<\/p>\n
Asked about the \u200creport, a \u200csource at Downing Street said: \u201cThe \u200bprime \u200cminister \u2060is \u200bnot afraid \u2060about taking on the tech companies and their bosses to protect young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
A source close to the matter said a formal ban was unlikely to come this week. The government could more immediately give details on efforts to prevent children from producing sexualized images \u2060online which can be used for \u200csextortion purposes.<\/p>\n
Worries over the \u200cimpact of social media on mental \u200bhealth and online safety prompted \u200cBritain to hold a consultation on children\u2019s access \u200cto social media earlier this year, with curfews, time limits and curbs on addictive design features, all under consideration.<\/p>\n
France, Denmark and Poland are also considering tightening rules around social media \u200cuse for children, while Greece in April announced it would ban access to those \u2060under \u2060the age of 15 from January 2027.<\/p>\n
Starmer is expected to focus on how the government can ensure technology brings positive change when he speaks later on Monday, according to a statement released by his office on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s online safety law already requires social media companies to take measures to protect children from illegal and harmful online content.<\/p>\n
Experts are divided on how effective a total ban would be, while a group \u200bof young people \u200bin London recently told Reuters they were opposed to restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: British Prime Minister \u200cKeir Starmer is set to announce a ban on \u201charmful\u201d online platforms for children under 16 while maintaining access to some safer forms \u200bof social media, the Times newspaper reported on Monday. Starmer, who is due to make a speech later on Monday, is said to have decided to proceed with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98754,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98739\/revisions\/98754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}