Keir Starmer set to ban under-16s from social media

Matthew Williams230

The Government are going to introduce this, but are they opening new areas for kids to enjoy? Are they encouraging better moderation of online games to support kids e.g. Roblox? Are they teaching people that the increased numbers of kids hanging around town are not a threat?

The old man and the THC173

She's not stupid enough to say i"'ve already got a vpn" on camera...

Kimmylea161

You just know they deliberately picked a serious, studious looking kid with the glasses and neat uniform to interview, hoping she'd give a serious, studious answer like "do more homework" or "focus on my career path". And she was not having it

Jen Hicken109

This will be the teenagers' ultimate revenge against authoritarian crackdowns: just simply refusing to do anything productive with all the time they would have spent online, purely out of spite. They are already cleverer than the government.

Heidi Peeps51

They will end up like me & my fellow Gen X’s hanging around off-licences waiting for the local bag head to come along to buy a bottle of cider for them for entertainment because there as been nothing for the kids to do for the past 40 years.

Chris Hutchings #ChoirsForClimate46

Don't be silly, you won't have to stare at a wall, there are loads of youth clubs to go to *taps earpiece* really? The Tories shut them all down? Oh dear. What about women's sports teams? All closed because they were trans-inclusive and couldn't afford a court case, you say? Crikey.

Scott Bryan39

posted this meme on TikTok two hours ago and

The Raccoon Overlord28

Sometimes social media is the only place you can find people going through the same things. The only place to find people who understand you. Especially if you don't live in a city. This is cutting off community, especially for kids from marginalized groups. Suicide rates will go up.

Bowerbird28

In Australia, young people are getting around the ban and still using social media. Pretty sure same would happen in UK. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06...

The Ghost Of Gerald Cid24

I'd have probably said "turn to a life of crime" which is why I was never allowed to speak to TV people if ever the opportunity had arisen.

The Doctor Who Show18

If she's anything like the under 16s here in Australia, she'll find an easy way around it - ours have - and just continue on, happily doing whatever she wants to do online. And good on them for that.

TerryLeopard14

I'll probably take up heroin to fill the gap.

pceebee2314

won't work ..doesn't work here in Oz ..won't work in the UK.... it is about forcing ALL net users to provide ID ...govt surveillance on steroids...

Tranquillity Base 🏳️‍⚧️13

Back in my day we used to use our "spare" toilet time to study the ingredient information on bathroom bottles. Time well spent.

Callum13

Keeps a straight face, looks her dead in the eye. That girl fucking oozes class!

TensegrityFan🐝🍯13

Presumably “stare at a wall” is code for “sign up to BlueSky”.

elijahv.bsky.social9

The number of people who don’t realize she’s being sarcastic is alarming. Maybe we need to take your devices, too.

Karen9

Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers. Intoned deadpan straight down the lens. Masterful.

LeftPeggers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇵🇸8

Perfect answer to a stupid question

Jonnie pxd8

Very impressive by the kid, managing to go viral just before she & her generation are banned from using social media. Mike drop moment 😂♥️

“Chakoteya”6

Back when it took a couple of hours to walk to town and back with my friends, the evening just flew by. But that was then.

Archie5

Huge fan of this response.

NullZer0Null5

Thank goodness successive cuts from government have taken away every single place young people used to congregate safely to socialise, AND sweeping moves by local authorities to drive them out of public spaces like town centres, parks, and shopping centres have given them solid alternatives.... /s

Alex Sowden5

Pulitzer-worthy broadcast journalism from the BBC here. bsky.app/profile/scot...

Itsalladeepend5

Just before this the reporter asks the group of kids anyone in favour of the ban should put their hand up, and none of them do.

Octopus4

First thing that came into my mind: "Thinking about taking up shoplifting"

Juan4

BBC news on an unprecedented run of late.

Cosmoiselle4

Perfectly encapsulating the experience of growing up in the 1980s.

Peter John H aka Pete the Medic Events my specialty4

🤦‍♂️ these are children of parents who are usually glued to their screens while they’re pushing the baby, walking the dog, eating in a restaurant etc etc so no wonder the child has no clue.

Crandall Mikeingfone3

Now they are gonna smoke drugs and do drugs

No weapon formed against you shall prosper2

If a reporter asked me that question & that was my response I can guarantee those 9 hours would be utilized resourcefully because I embarrassed the hell out of my parents….😒

🏳️‍⚧️Manticorn☸️2

I guess what she wanted to hear was "go play outside"

Sofa Jockey2

She is smart. She'll find her way.

🇦🇺 WyndhamVic2

Australia: "What social media ban? What you talkin' about idiot!"

@Julianshea.bsky.social2

Which is near enough the same thing.

daryn210

Anyone that thinks this is actually about protecting kids is high af.

Stephen Kinsella129

Is this a spoof? What fool told the Government about BlueSky? Because they’re clearly hadn’t heard of it yesterday.

mactp.bsky.social97

How about a ban on twitter for politicians in the uk

Alyssa Shulman62

There are people here under the age of 30?

Joshua J. Friedman34

Thanks! What's your source for this?

Miley Crisis. ✨34

Who told them that we exist?

Random Hajile28

Bluesky actually checks all users ages. Did I hear that WhatsApp isn't included?

Boog23

god, I feel so terrible for these teenagers. I probs wouldna made it to 18 without the online communities I was in, and a lot of those old forums and suchlike were fully replaced by social media. a bunch of important, formative friendgroups for these kids are about to get shattered

StephenB19

“Social interaction”?? No, no, no… that’s not why the pendants and killjoys are on here.

Zorbakpants 16

If you're still labouring under the illusion this is about protecting kids, kindly answer me two questions: Firstly, what the fuck are you smoking, and secondly where can I get some?

Atwood's Child16

Told teenage daughter about this one, she said, "what's Bluesky?". She's also downloaded a VPN

The Raccoon Overlord15

Well fuck. We can't have those kids having social interactions! They might end up questioning their hamster man Prime Minister

Gavin15

"The government said it will be BANNED because it is a “user-to-user platform who purpose is to enable social interaction.”" - RIP to talking to under-16s on the telephone!

Cris (without an H)15

The government also noted that Bluesky was not in their original announcement because "nobody really posts there"

Ms. Alice Cumgutter 🏳️‍⚧️12

This is a surveillance grab from the UK government, already over indulgent on mass surveillance. They always swaddle their demands for more invasive surveillance in a thin vinnear of "won't someone think of the children" or "stopping terrorism" Governments don't have a right to your privacy.

Tim Hill of Antifa, #FBPE9

What about Truth Social? That belongs to a paedophile.

Stevie D8

I'm sure the dozen or so under-16s who are on here will be distraught. It might take them all of 10 minutes to get around the ban. While the whole time the govt ignores many other online comms tools where kids remain unprotected, not to mention ignoring the harm that unregulated SM does to adults.

dabxdee.bsky.social7

...but please, by all means don't forget to gamble on the gambling apps

Craig Grannell7

bsky.app/profile/crai... << You might find my column of interest.

Dr Bone Finger6

Does this mean forums will also be included? Am I gonna have to give my id to Linux forums? Am i gonna have to show my passport to go on CivFanatics?

Matt6

"purpose is to enable social interaction" eh, that'll never hold up in court

Meatball Dom6

UK under 16s will have to imagine a voluptuous cartoon zebra in a diaper

Joshua Casey 😷🎮🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦🇵🇸5

well, i guess it's nice of the fascist UK government to admit that they don't want the youth (or anyone) to be able to socialize and share information like the authoritarian fuckheads that they are 🤷‍♀️

Hollyphant Pants5

Does this also ban video games with chat?

ADE | MarcDesign 🍇 [HIATUS]5

Platforms aren't the problem, it's the content they host. Most social networks harm children because of algorithmic curation, and manipulative bite-sized clips that erode attention, and a surplus of instant gratification that encourages gambling-adjacent behaviors. BSky lacks these, yet is targeted.

Patrick Hardy5

God forbid teenagers have social interaction in the evening

icefragrance.bsky.social5

I am okay with that. Social media needs to be regulated and held accountable for their content.

Adrian Cardenas (commissions closed, laptop broke)5

You can't make this shit up if you tried. "Oh these damn kids, so anti-social. Anyways, let's go ahead and ban apps for enabling social interaction." I don't know how 3rd places are in the UK, but I wouldn't be surprised if teenagers aren't welcome like in the US.

Liam4

Where will the 12 year old yimbys go?

Griffin4

👀 I didn't think they knew Bluesky even existed! Barely any Labour MPs on here, and certainly not Starmer!

Escarietson4

Friendly reminder that Nepal did the same thing, and their repulsive government got overthrown a week later by their own Gen Z populace who CLEARLY hate government censorship.

Kev🇬🇧🍺4

That's fine. If the govt started picking and choosing which sites to ban it would look like they were simply interfering rather than protecting.

Gerry Dunn3

Rather "enable human interaction" than "enable hate".

Random Bummer Generator3

oh no, not social interaction! that's the worst thing for a child to do (unsnarkily, yes, i know actual social interaction is better but killing this avenue off doesn't help them in the slightest, it just makes their world that much smaller. and controllable.)

🇨🇦Manitoba DoubleDown3

no issues with this. its still social media and cant cherry pick platforms.

chrisptato.bsky.social3

Christ almighty that's like stopping kids from reading the guardian

Drum And Bus3

They banned social interaction? Ok...

DEIty3

It will be better if we banned UK adults instead

Leaning Red Panda3

Let's stop calling them social media as they are not it... They are advertising and manipulation platforms... Sure, BlueSky is the less evil from among them, but people can get too engaged here as well.

Harry McNally3

Good we dont want those Bobbysoxers over here with their Cliff Richard LPs

Cyber Spice (Wapentake of Upper Skyrack)3

So are they going to ban telephones?

rogeralien.bsky.social3

Can’t have young people interacting - that could lead to better understanding between people and compassion 🤨

Felgraf3

.. Wait doesn't fucking EMAIL also fall under that definition?

Pyperkub2

In the early days of the internet, this would be to protect kids from... Monty Python references!

Hilary2

Because Bluesky is so incredibly incendiary 🤣 mad. This whole thing is mad.

bdyguy.bsky.social2

Didnt Orwell write the settings for 1984 in Britain?

Ayatollah Colm Meaney2

The UK is a joke. The only country more like the US than the actual US.

MJ of Everything is Public Health Production2

I'm so steeped in the dumpster fire that is the US, I fully forgot the UK is doing bs like this wow

Betty Ann2

When teenagers burn down parliament, I don’t want to hear shit. They’re just looking for outdoor activities now.

danjac.eurosky.social2

This happened because of intensive lobbying by insulted Bluesky users

Vanguard2

Much of the entire internet fits that description...

R.T. Ester2

Devaststed for all the under 16s just clamoring to be on bluesky

JoJo Mineo2

Uhhhh....isn't that also called SOCIAL MEDIA?

Shade Aurion2

"Center Right Zionist Labour Party tries to qwell outrage in youth by banning youth from seeing things that make them angry"

Phoenixrising10512

Is social interaction a problem for youngsters?

tastewart 🦋2

I kinda see why but PARENTS should be aware of what their kids are consuming and to add parental controls.

queckquack2

if this requires age verification then guess I'll die

I’m old enough that “user-to-user platform whose purpose is to enable social interaction” has strong echoes of “repetitive beats” And am I reading it right that it somehow *doesn’t* include reddit? Non-algorithm Bluesky is included but heavily-algorithmed reddit *isn’t*?

davidjohngreen.bsky.social2

Remind me, is Discord on the list?

Max Colbert2

Is there a source for this?

Cyber Spice (Wapentake of Upper Skyrack)2

Us old people had a thing called IRC. Its time it came back!

Indystitcher 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇱🇩🇰34

Why does he not tackle the owners of these social media sites instead? These owners control everything on their sites, and can clean them up if they wanted to.

Dr Emu, Graham Pringle, PhD17

In Australia, our experience is that if a kid wants to find a way around the controls, they will and can The ban will only be followed by those already inclined to obey Here, the results are inconclusive, with no demonstrated benefits, so it is a great idea to adopt the same policy

M. Velez17

He announced this on X where adults are frying their brains and becoming literal angry mobs and going on pogroms.

รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️‍🌈11

he's such a dangerous cretin.

Jockyfox10

It’s not the kids who are the problem It’s the middle aged Neanderthal thickos who dont like black and brown people - and those who wind them up … @natashadevon.bsky.social

Brian L028 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇪🇺9

It’s a hotly contentious issue but his argument makes no sense. Technology is everywhere and so we must keep kids away from it. Excellent preparation for the future?

Wudang96 💖🌻7

This is not go to turn out the way they think. Were they never teenagers? 😭 🤣😁🙈

Ilas🇨🇦🇺🇦🇺🇲🎵❤️6

We are doing the same in Canada I like this idea, age limit is needed.

Frogzombie6

Genie and bottle comes to mind

Colleen4

I hope folks who are upset can show us how they tried to stop, mostly men, from waving their pathetic dicks all over social media. How did they personally try to stop, mostly men, from exploiting children? Can’t scroll even on Bluesky without seeing a prick’s dick. Kids don’t need that.Nobody does.

Russ DiBello4

He's apparently grasping for a cheap win with Mum and Pop because by all accounts he's drowning in unpopularity: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZL_...

Annie Haz3

How about forcing the companies running social media sites(like META!)to stop making their products so harmful for children?!This "ban" will be almost impossible to enforce,but making companies comply with safety rules would be far easier to bring about.Its not the kids at fault,it's the companies!

figmo3

But how will that ever be enforced???

Jim Ziegler3

My problem with that would be that trying to enforce it involves curtailing everyone else's right to access whatever they want, because kids could always use their non-social or low-use media parents' id to get on anyway! I wouldn't want video verification of age to become the normal criteria!

spagjon.bsky.social3

It's older people who can't identify obviously fake AI generated images or news stories. Kids are savvier than most.

Walter Paisley2

What's next? Kids reading books? God forbids!!!

The Rodge 2026 Rabbit 🐰2

I had to delete my comment a lot of good points about who’s responsible for what. The conversation is long overdue though.

Lisa Wrote This2

The sentiment is good. How will they enforce this? Most young teens get their smart phones from their parents. Most teens know how to get around an age verification bot.

robertjeff57-58.bsky.social2

Oh How do you enforce it Confirm you are 16 14 confirms Id photos from schools Parental permission Good luck Kids are good at forging It’s a great idea Less stress from peer pressure Enforcement going to be difficult

We Were Right2

But doing nothing about the sexist CRAP little kids get on YouTube

txok7376.bsky.social2

Hello. Indeed. Though Bsky is exempt from this. X users are already having melt downs about it, saying Bsky is the home of the left, its full of predators and does nothing to handle CSAM, among other things

Martin Kimber8

@stephenkb.bsky.social my kids have both used YouTube educationally for most of their secondary school time. Languages, science experiments, music, specifically given YouTube links by teachers to consume the content as part of homework. They often would not have finished their homework by 20.30 […]

Ed Morrish7

i’m not 100% convinced this will make their vote less informed

Ian Boucher6

I really like the policy it’s just as a parent I think content becomes harmful at 8.35 not 8.30. So hopefully they will adjust this to let them have those 5 minutes back before the harmful content becomes harmful.

Tom Adams2

But they will? On a family or shared device, or using a family YouTube account with visibility. I absolutely am not saying that this is perfect, and the curfew is definitely weird, but the idea that limiting access from a child's account means limiting access absolutely isn't accurate.

Nico ↙️↙️↙️13

This type of policies is a failure in Australia, it will also be a failure in Canada and the UK as well…

Moi12

what it means is that everyone in the UK will have to give ID to use these sites, not just children.

Yung Dolma6

This labour party keeps doing tory things but will not be thanked by the fascists they're trying to appeal to.

La Jazmine4

We (the USA) needs to ban it for EVERYONE! It's extremely toxic and no longer what it once was.

Ma Amikron2

the weird thing about this is: in the UK, 13 year old kids can go to jail for crimes … I say: either you can take responsibility with 13 or you cannot - but not both!

Martn2

By recognising that it's bad for kids, why haven't the govt gone the logical step further & said they're leaving X bc it's full of nonces and nazis?

James8

we have glued more phones into lunchboxes than any government in history

Douglas Cheape5

‘Government minister welcomes expected boost to the struggling printing and gardening sectors with the return of Hedge Porn.’

𝓪 𝓶𝓪𝓵𝓮𝓿𝓸𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓶𝓸𝓽𝓱 🦋3

i like to think a kazoo sneezing up a bee's arse would be whimsical and life-affirming, petition to change the bee to a wasp

Joza Feen3

*chef's kiss* He started his speech managing not to do that voice, then hurtled straight into it.

Viscount Pontypandy3

Does he come down on the right side of anything decent?

Call me Steffie McWang2

So all they need do now is open a tor browser and use the dark web instead. Well done Starmer you just made the internet less safe and forced kids onto completely unregulated platforms.

On the bright side at some point all these freaks are going to have to pick a decade they want to aim for... be it the 50's, 60's, or so on. And that particular crab bucket is one I fully intend to spectate. 🍿

Kylie Woyote3

The 70s? In the UK? Wasn't that basically a hellscape?

Jooni2

I felt so alone and isolated when I was young. Meeting other Trans people online would have saved me from years of mental health problems. It’s hard enough for Trans children already, and now they’ll be isolated too.