UK government to act on child social media access before the end of 2025

New restrictions on children's access to social media will be introduced before the close of the year, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has announced, as a government consultation on the issue draws to a close.

An outright ban on social media for under-16s — mirroring legislation already enacted in Australia — is among the options under active consideration.

Kendall confirmed that the government's formal response to the consultation would be published in the summer, with concrete action to follow by the year's end.

Consultation draws 70,000 submissions

Since March, the government has been gathering views from parents and children on a range of potential interventions, including app curfews and more robust age verification measures.

A number of these were trialled in homes across the United Kingdom. The consultation, which closed at the end of Tuesday, received approximately 70,000 submissions from charities, campaign groups and members of the public.

Potential restrictions being considered include night-time curfews, the disabling of features such as auto-play and infinite scroll, and tighter enforcement of age checks. Respondents were also asked for their views on children's access to artificial intelligence chatbots.

Kendall told the BBC: "The question isn't whether we're going to act — we will."

She added that the government was examining a broad range of issues and platform features, and how these affect children. That scope could lead the UK to examine platforms not covered by Australia's restrictions, including Roblox and Discord.

"We've got to get this right, and we've got to make it last," she said.

Bereaved families to meet Prime Minister

Campaigners remain divided over the most effective course of action. Some groups, including police leaders, have backed an outright ban, arguing that any platform which refuses to remove certain features should be prohibited for under-16s.

Ellen Roome, whose 14-year-old son Jools died in 2022, is among a group of bereaved families and campaigners set to meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday.

The group intends to press the government to raise the minimum age of access for social media platforms deemed harmful to children.

"Later today, I, and other families who have lost children to social media, will tell the prime minister directly: social media is a product, and like any other faulty product causing the deaths of children, it should be restricted until the companies responsible have fixed it and proven it is safe," Ellen said.

Lord Nash, a former Conservative education minister, was equally direct in his message to the government: "The government gave a commitment to Parliament that they would introduce some form of age or functionality restriction on social media for children under 16. Deliver on that commitment fully and in the shortest possible timeframe."

Opposition to a blanket ban

Not all campaigners are in favour of prohibition. Reports from Australia indicate that children have been able to access platforms supposedly blocked for their age group, raising questions about the practical effectiveness of such legislation.

Ian Russell, chair of the online safety charity the Molly Rose Foundation, has previously argued that the government should enforce laws already on the statute book rather than resort to what he described as "sledgehammer techniques like bans."

An open letter, signed by several child safety charities, called on the government to require technology firms to align their standards with those of the British Board of Film Classification — the body responsible for determining film age ratings — to protect teenagers "in line with the same high standards applied to film released in UK cinemas."

Doctors raise health concerns

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, representing the UK's most senior doctors, has also submitted its views to the consultation, calling for action on young people's social media use on the grounds of the serious harm it poses to health.

In their submission, the organisation draws a comparison with smoking, arguing that social media poses an equivalent threat. They have further called for doctors to routinely raise the subject of screen time and social media use when treating younger patients.

It should be noted, however, that there is no consensus within the wider scientific community that screen time as a whole is harmful to children.

Tech industry response

It remains unclear which technology platforms responded formally to the government's consultation or to proposals for a ban. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has stated that it would prefer age verification to be managed at the device level, meaning underage children would be blocked from downloading certain applications before they are ever installed.

Kendall indicated she was prepared to proceed regardless of any resistance from major technology companies.

"No one's going to stop me from doing what I think is right for this country," she told the BBC.