Why is Starmer banning kids from social media?

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that under-16s will be banned from social media, and adults will have to verify their identity to use major platforms. Critics say it’s an opportunity for Starmer to fulfil his long-term goal of introducing digital ID by the back door.

Starmer announced the ban on Monday, declaring that he is “simply not prepared to be a bystander when the safety and happiness of our children are at stake.” According to information released by his office, children under 16 will be banned from “user to user” apps like X, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and will also be forbidden from livestreaming and messaging strangers on gaming apps.

So-called “romantic companion” AI chatbots will be banned, and 16- and 17-year-olds will face nightly social media curfews. The ban will come into force next year.

Is the proposed UK social media ban popular?

On the surface, the ban is an easy win for Starmer. Nine out of ten parents told the Guardian that they would support such a ban, while 76% of all Britons – parents or not – back the measure, according to a YouGov poll. With Starmer facing a leadership challenge from within his own party, and with his approval rating languishing at a miserable 16%, the timing of the ban was convenient for the prime minister.

Things get messier, however, when it comes to the ban’s enforcement.

Will adults have to prove their age to use social media?

Details of the ban’s enforcement mechanisms remain vague, but over-16s will need to prove their identity in order to use apps restricted for children. Starmer’s office said that age verification will “use the same model for a social media ban as Australia,” and the PM said that it will build on “our experience with the Online Safety Act.”

In Australia, where a social media ban has been in place since December, users are required to prove that they are over 16 by allowing their faces to be scanned, or submitting government-issued ID, with platforms in charge of conducting these checks. The UK’s Online Safety Act already requires users to prove their age in order to access pornographic websites, with facial scanning, open banking information, credit card checks, photo ID, and digital ID all considered acceptable forms of proof by the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom.

Is the ban an excuse to push digital ID?

Starmer tried and failed to introduce mandatory digital ID last year, claiming that it would allow the government to better keep track of illegal migrants. The plan was fiercely opposed by all opposition parties, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage saying it would “make no difference to illegal immigration, but it will be used to control and penalize the rest of us.”

Dozens of Starmer’s fellow Labour Party MPs condemned the scheme, a public petition against digital ID gained more than 1.5 million signatures, and Starmer backed down in January. As of now, digital ID remains optional in the UK.

According to Ofcom figures, 89% of adult internet users in the UK use at least one social media platform. By making these users prove their identity before accessing social media, Starmer’s ban is essentially forcing a form of digital ID onto a population that roundly rejected it last year. At least that’s how some tech executives see the ban: X owner Elon Musk described the law as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” claiming that “the real goal is to enable the UK government to track everyone.”

The verification “is the point,” Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke wrote on X. “’Won’t someone think of the children’ is usually not about the children.”

Who could the UK social media ban affect? 

The law could affect all smartphone users – not just those who use social media. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has argued that verification should be carried out by Apple and Google when smartphone users set up iOS or Android devices, rather than by individual social media platforms. While this would allow Meta to avoid the legal responsibility of carrying out these checks itself, it would also tie every iOS or Android account to a real person, and every British smartphone user to their device.