{"id":43821,"date":"2026-03-10T23:07:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=43821"},"modified":"2026-03-10T23:07:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:22:03","slug":"uk-under-16-social-media-ban-fails-as-govt-seeks-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/uk-under-16-social-media-ban-fails-as-govt-seeks-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"UK under-16 social media ban fails as govt seeks talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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British MPs struck down proposals for a blanket ban on social media for children under 16, as the government backed a separate consultation on measures to protect young people online.<\/p>\n

The Australia-style ban was part of a bill which passed in the UK’s upper house of parliament, known as the House of Lords, in January.<\/p>\n

It failed to secure enough votes in the House of Commons late Monday, after the government opposed it in favour of a consultation due in summer.<\/p>\n

However, more than 100 of the 404 Labour MPs abstained, as calls to restrict children’s access to social media grow among politicians and the public.<\/p>\n

A YouGov poll in December found 74 percent of Britons supported a ban.<\/p>\n

Olivia Bailey, an education minister in the Labour government, urged more flexible measures, noting a “blanket ban could drive children towards less regulated corners of the internet.”<\/p>\n

Bailey also warned it could “leave teenagers unprepared when they do come online.”<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not ruled out a ban, and said the consultation will consider measures including age restrictions and banning addictive features like scrolling.<\/p>\n

British public figures including actor Hugh Grant had urged the government to back the proposal, saying parents alone cannot counter social media harms.<\/p>\n

Education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats party Munira Wilson accused the government of “dither and delay” on the matter.<\/p>\n

In December, Australia became the first nation to prohibit people under the age of 16 from using immensely popular and profitable social media platforms.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the UK government held a roundtable with social media companies including Snapchat, TikTok, Meta and YouTube on implementing measures to protect women and girls online.<\/p>\n

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said she had asked media watchdog Ofcom for a report on the platforms’ compliance with the measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British MPs struck down proposals for a blanket ban on social media for children under 16, as the government backed a separate consultation on measures to protect young people online. The Australia-style ban was part of a bill which passed in the UK’s upper house of parliament, known as the House of Lords, in January. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43822,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43821\/revisions\/43822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}