Social media ban for kids: Why is Starmer stalling?
4/15/202635 min
MPs are voting again on a social media ban for U16s today - but the government has only committed to a consultation on the move so as it stands it's unlikely to become law. The clamour for the move is growing, and public opinion is strongly in favour of restricting social media use to adults only. So why is Keir Starmer dragging his feet and losing any capital he could gain from moving on it? Would a ban even work? And what impact is big tech having on our teenagers and children?
Later, after his historic ousting of Viktor Orban, Peter Magyar has wasted no time in trying to deconstruct his populist hold on the country. He's lashed out at state TV channels who'd banned him from their networks in opposition - and visited the country's president, telling him he was unfit to serve. Will his attempts to start a new chapter in Hungary work?
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Lewis Goodall· Host0:05
Whether or not to ban, uh, social media or at the very least more heavily regulate social media for the under sixteens. It seems really strange the idea that Keir Starmer wouldn't get behind it because there is a political win to be had there quite quickly.
Emily Maitlis· Host0:21
Well, we're not saying ban kids from using Google. Go and search things up.
Lewis Goodall· Host0:24
There's no way Biden administration should have allowed Elon Musk to buy X.
Matthew Bergman· Soundbite0:27
I, uh, take my cues from, uh, uh, Professor Jonathan Haidt, uh, the guy, the author of The Anxious Generation. He suggests sixteen. I think that's a prudent step. I think that, uh, that doesn't mean that kids are, you know, completely mature at sixteen, but the worst cases of social media addiction that I confront in my law practice are the kids that have gone online and gone on social media when they're eight, nine, ten. Uh, I think that, uh, is a time when they have very, very little impulse control, where their brains are really in a state of development. Uh, when kids get to be sixteen, and they-- I think they have more fortitude, uh, to resist, uh, the addictive elements and, and more strength, uh, going forward. I think that would be a, a productive step.
Lewis Goodall· Host1:11
That's Matthew Bergman, the campaigning lawyer who's taken on YouTube and Meta, speaking to us yesterday on the News Agents about why there needs to be a social media ban for children under sixteen.
Emily Maitlis· Host1:24
There are about a dozen countries now set to age gate social media accounts.