More than 60 Labour MPs have called on the prime minister to impose a ban on under-16s access to social media platforms.In a open letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Sunday, the 61 MPs said “successive governments” had done “too little to protect young people from… unregulated, addictive social media platforms”. They urged him to follow the example of Australia, which brought in a ban in December. Several other countries are said to be considering similar laws.Sir Keir has not ruled out introducing a ban, saying “all options are on the table”. The House of Lords is likely to vote this week on a cross-party amendment that would implement an Australia-style ban in the UK. The amendment has backing from Baroness Benjamin, the Liberal Democrat peer and former children’s TV presenter; Conservative former education minister Lord Nash; the Labour peer Baroness Berger and Baroness Cass, an independent member of the House of Lords, who is a paediatrician.Separately, the Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment which would introduce film-style age ratings, meaning some social media platforms would be restricted based on the type of content they were hosting. The letter from Labour MPs, which includes the signatures of a number of committee chairs and former frontbenchers, said many constituents had contacted the MPs to express concerns about the effects of social media on young people.It read: “Across our constituencies, we hear the same message: children are anxio …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnMore than 60 Labour MPs have called on the prime minister to impose a ban on under-16s access to social media platforms.In a open letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Sunday, the 61 MPs said “successive governments” had done “too little to protect young people from… unregulated, addictive social media platforms”. They urged him to follow the example of Australia, which brought in a ban in December. Several other countries are said to be considering similar laws.Sir Keir has not ruled out introducing a ban, saying “all options are on the table”. The House of Lords is likely to vote this week on a cross-party amendment that would implement an Australia-style ban in the UK. The amendment has backing from Baroness Benjamin, the Liberal Democrat peer and former children’s TV presenter; Conservative former education minister Lord Nash; the Labour peer Baroness Berger and Baroness Cass, an independent member of the House of Lords, who is a paediatrician.Separately, the Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment which would introduce film-style age ratings, meaning some social media platforms would be restricted based on the type of content they were hosting. The letter from Labour MPs, which includes the signatures of a number of committee chairs and former frontbenchers, said many constituents had contacted the MPs to express concerns about the effects of social media on young people.It read: “Across our constituencies, we hear the same message: children are anxio …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
