UK Peers Urged to Vote on Social Media Ban for Under-16s

Peers in the House of Lords have been urged to vote in support of a ban on social media for under-16s in the UK. Lord Nash, a former schools minister, has proposed a change to a bill, which would raise the age limit for users of social media. The legislation will be debated later on Wednesday. It comes amid calls for the UK government to follow Australia in imposing a social media ban for young people - the world's first - last year. But some campaigners and children's charities have opposed the move, which Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has not ruled out. Earlier this week, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall announced a "swift" consultation on measures to "keep children safe online" and seek views on the effectiveness of a ban. It will assess the merits of a ban for under-16s, as well as overnight curfews and actions to prevent "doom-scrolling". It would also look at whether more robust age checks could be implemented by social media firms, which could be forced to remove or limit features "which drive compulsive use of social media". And England's education inspectorate, Ofsted, will give tougher guidance to schools to reduce phone use - including telling staff not to use their devices for personal reasons in front of pupils. Conservative peer Lord Nash argued there was no need for a consultation, partly because polling showed "the vast majority of parents want it". "There is a huge volume of evidence in academic studies around the world that show quite clearly that excessive use of social media is damaging to children's health," he told the BBC's Today programme. He said his amendment proposed "highly effective age verification". "The social media companies are perfectly capable, and have told me this, of putting in place highly effective age verification." He added: "We're just asking for a few more years for children to mature so that they do have to deal with social media at 16, they're more likely to distinguish fact from fiction and they can make better judgements." Lord Nash's amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill has been co-sponsored by Labour peer Baroness Berger, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Benjamin and independent crossbench peer Baroness Cass. However, if the amendment passed in the Lords, it could be overturned in the House of Commons by MPs at a later stage.