UK prime minister Keir Starmer has set a “months” timeline for the long-brewing plan for a social media age limit, signaling the government is ready to pick a fight with Big Tech if that’s what it takes.
In a Substack post, Starmer said ministers want powers to set a minimum age for social media far more quickly than it took to grind the Online Safety Act through Parliament, arguing the move is needed to prevent children from being exposed to harmful content and addictive platform design.
The post lands alongside a broader package of measures the government says will be fleshed out through a consultation starting in March as ministers look to expand and tweak the existing online safety framework.
Starmer leaned heavily on the idea that social platforms are distorting children’s development, warning: “Young people’s sense of self depends on this algorithm.”
His post singles out so-called engagement features, such as infinite scroll and auto-play, as examples of functionality that could face restrictions if officials deem them detrimental to children’s well-being, indicating a willingness to push beyond content moderation into the mechanics of how platforms capture attention.
“We will bring new powers that will give us the ability to crack down on the addictive elements of social media, stop the auto-play, the never-ending scrolling, that keeps are [sic] children hooked on their screens for hours, and stop kids getting around age limits,” Starmer wrote.
The UK wouldn’t be alone in targeting infinite feeds. EU regulators are already probing TikTok over whether its limitless scrolling and recommendation algorithms pose systemic risks under the Digital Services Act, a case that could force design changes and set a precedent for others to follow.
Another eyebrow-raising idea is limiting children’s ability to use VPNs to dodge safeguards, a nod to the cat-and-mouse game regulators face whenever age checks or feature restrictions are introduced, but exactly how that would work in practice is anyone’s guess.
The government is also proposing measures that will require tech companies to preserve data on a child’s device if they die – a change championed by campaigners behind so-called Jools’ Law – and to bring AI chatbots more explicitly into scope of the online safety regime, reflecting growing concern about how younger users interact with generative tools and the “vile illegal content” created by AI.
This move follows recent scrutiny of Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot after the UK’s privacy watchdog opened a formal investigation into xAI over the bot generating sexual images of real people without consent – a scandal that has intensified calls to tighten rules around AI tools.
Technology secretary Liz Kendall said: “I know that parents across the country want us to act urgently to keep their children safe online. That’s why I stood up to Grok and Elon Musk when they flouted British laws and British values.”
“We will not wait to take the action families need, so we will tighten the rules on AI chatbots and we are laying the ground so we can act at pace on the results of the consultation on young people and social media,” Kendall added. “We are determined to give children the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future at time of rapid technological change.”
The tone throughout Starmer’s post is combative, with the PM framing the effort as a willingness to take on Silicon Valley if necessary. “And if that means a fight with the big social media companies, then bring it on,” he said.
However, it’s not just social media platforms that are unlikely to welcome Starmer’s fast-track plans. Digital rights groups have warned that any meaningful under-16 ban quickly runs into the reality of age-gating at scale, which they claim would mean mass age checks across large swathes of the internet.
For now, nothing changes overnight, but by setting a “months” timeline for age limits, floating curbs on addictive features, and widening the rules to cover AI tools, platforms have been put firmly on notice. ®