Keir Starmer is being urged by senior figures from the worlds of intelligence and counter-terrorism to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s for the sake of national security.
Jonathan Hall, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, warned that social media platforms were radicalising children. Last year, a fifth of those arrested for terrorism offences were under 18.
“Terrorism content offers excitement, meaning and clarity, and teenage brains are unable to deal with it,” Hall said. “The ghastly child terrorism arrest statistics are a product of teenage interaction with online content.”
In the year to last September, 53 children were arrested for terror-related offences. The youngest was 13.
Hall said the government should follow Australia in outlawing sites such as Facebook, TikTok and X for younger teenagers. “As I know directly from young people convicted of terrorism, the journey begins on innocent-seeming social media platforms. Content and comment is suggested algorithmically, and curiosity leads to the harder stuff. We cannot turn away from this,” he said.
Peers will this week vote on a proposal to introduce an Australian-style ban. Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, said she would be supporting the amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill.
“We have a responsibility to act,” she said. “The evidence is overwhelming that many children are damaged by social media. Access to pornography and worse, torture, beheadings, child rape, terrorism, causes trauma and sometimes imitation. There is plenty of data to show the mental health of many children is badly affected.”
The prime minister is under growing pressure from Cabinet ministers to back a ban. In an interview with The Observer last month he said he was opposed to the idea. “I think we need to be really careful with social media,” he said. “[But] I think it’s more about how you control the content that children can see rather than simply saying [there should be a blanket ban].”
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However, last week Starmer told MPs that he was “open-minded” on the issue. A Downing Street source said: “We will look at all the evidence when it comes to keeping children safe.”
The row over the nudification of images by the AI tool Grok is understood to have shifted the mood in No 10. Senior figures believe it could have tipped the balance towards a ban.
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Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is among those urging the government to go further to prevent younger teenagers accessing harmful content. Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, is also increasingly concerned about the impact of the digital world on children.
Australia’s groundbreaking ban, which came into effect last month, puts a legal duty on technology companies to take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 having a social media account. Platforms covered by the legislation include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit and YouTube.
The Lords amendment, which has been tabled by John Nash, the former Conservative education minister, would introduce a similar ban in the UK. It is sponsored by Hilary Cass, the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a crossbench peer. It also has the support of Floella Benjamin, the former children’s TV presenter and a Liberal Democrat member of the Lords, and Luciana Berger, the Labour peer who led the party’s mental health strategy review.
Supporters are optimistic it will be passed in the Lords. If it is, ministers will have to decide whether to overturn the measure in the Commons. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has backed a ban.
Last summer, Counter Terrorism Policing, MI5 and the National Crime Agency issued an unprecedented joint warning to parents ahead of the school holidays about the dangers found online. According to MI5, 13% of its terrorism investigations now involve children, a threefold increase since 2021.
New polling by Merlin Strategy found that 45% of young people – and 41% of those under 16 – believe political information on social media is geared towards extreme, radical, dangerous views. Almost two thirds of 13- to 24-year-olds said social media was responsible for increasing political extremism and more than half believe social media can be blamed for increasing misogyny and violence against women.
Nash said: “When the former head of MI5 says we cannot delay and the government's own independent reviewer of terrorism legislation says we cannot turn away, the government should listen and this research shows why.
“Social media is driving children to extremist views and fuelling misogyny and violence against women and girls, with terrifying consequences. The government and all peers should back my amendment to protect our children, keep our women and girls safe, and defend our national security.”
A recent Ofcom study found that children in the UK aged between eight and 14 spend an average of nearly three hours online each day. There has been a 477% increase in requests for mental health support from children over the past 10 years.
Photograph by Katherine Anne Rose