Keir Starmer says UK will ‘have to act’ to curb addictive features of social media

Keir Starmer has backed banning addictive social media features in his strongest intervention yet on curbs that could be placed on tech companies, saying the features “shouldn’t be permitted”.
The prime minister said the government was “going to have to act” on the algorithms that hook young people and children to social media, such as scrolling or “streaks” that encourage daily usage of apps.
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said social media was “designed to keep you there” and that the government’s consultation on use of social media would look closely at how addictive features could be tackled.
The comments come after a case in the US against Meta and Google, which found the companies liable for a woman’s childhood social media addiction and awarded $6m in damages. The companies plan to appeal.
In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Starmer said: “This is the platforms trying to get children to stay on for longer, to get addicted. I can’t see that there’s a case for that, and therefore I can see we’re going to have to act.”
Starmer said he was “open-minded” about a ban on social media for under-16s, which has been enacted in Australia, but said there would be significant changes after the consultation.
“We’ll go through the consultation, but I think I’ll be absolutely clear, things will not stay as they are. This is going to change. I don’t think the next generation would forgive us if we didn’t act now.”
Speaking on Sunday after the government published new guidance for under-fives’ screentime, Phillipson said there were different options under consultation.
“I think as an adult it’s hard to escape the conclusion that some of this is designed to get your attention and to keep your attention. Now, that’s one thing for an adult, but of course we have to think pretty seriously about what that means for the developing brains of younger children,” she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show.
Asked if sites were designed to be addictive, Phillipson said: “I think they intend to keep you there. I think that is the intention now, and we are clear through the consultation that we’re going to look at the addictive features and some of the algorithmically driven content we know can be damaging for our youngest children.”
She said a ban on addictive algorithms for younger users was “something we’re considering through that wider consultation about young people overall. We are also looking at all of those questions around social media and whether there should be an age limit around the digital age of consent, around questions around addictive content, algorithmically driven content.”
During the consultation, hundreds of UK teenagers will trial social media bans, digital curfews and time limits on apps as part of a government pilot. A proportion of 300 teenagers across all four nations of the UK will have their social apps disabled, “mimicking the enforcement of a social media ban at home”.
Nearly 30,000 parents and children have responded to the government’s digital wellbeing consultation, which closes on 26 May.