Ban on social media for under-16s is not inevitable, signals technology secretary – UK politics live

Liz Kendall says several organisations have concerns about ban on social media for under-16s before conclusion of government consultationGood morning. Parliament is in recess this week, but politics goes on, and the government an announcement about social media. The Online Safety Act, a vast piece of legislation that was first proposed in the last decade and passed in 2023, is only now fully coming into force. But already there are claims that it is out of date and, under pressure from campaigners – and particularly the Conservative party – the government last month announced that it will consult on the case for banning under-16s from social media. Australia has introduced a ban of this kind, and in countries around the world governments are under growing pressure to do the same. The Tories are fully committed to a ban for under-16s, and recently won a vote on this in the Lords.Today’s government “announcement” on social media is actually three announcements. There are explained in this news release from No 10. They are:A loophole is being closed to ensure that material produced by AI chatbots is covered by Online Safety Act rules. When the act was being passed, AI chatbots weren’t widely available. Robert Booth has focused on this in is overnight Guardian story.The government is committing to legislating now so that, when its three-month consultation on a social media ban for under-16s wraps up later, if it decides it wants to change the law, it will be able to do so via secondary legislation (ie quickly), without having to wait for a new bill. (This is broadly what the Labour MP Fred Thomas, who is pushing for a ban on under-16s using social media, was arguing for after the government lost the vote on this in the Lords last month.)The government is also promising legislation to ensure that, if a child dies and social media is deemed relevant, that content gets preserved, not wiped. Campaigners refer to this as Jool’s law.We do think it’s right to have a consultation on whether or not to ban social media for the under-16sLots of people have made up their minds, Lord Nash (the Tory peer who tabled the amendment that led to the government defeat in January) included. Continue reading...