Starmer slams tech giants as UK prepares a major crackdown on social media child safety

The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, will be giving social media representatives a good talking to on Thursday to let them know that they cannot look the other way when it comes to protecting children on their platforms. This comes as the country strengthens online safety with tools like the Online Safety Act and age verification on adult websites.

According to the government, senior leaders from Meta, Snap, Google and YouTube, TikTok, and X will be brought in to urge them to make more progress on child safety. The government said that this meeting will be important for parents as it will help to ensure that their children “grow up supported and safe online”.

To be fair to companies, some measures have already been implemented to protect children such as disabling autoplay for children by default and giving parents greater control over screen time and introducing curfews. But for the government, this doesn’t go far enough and the Prime Minister will urge firms to go further.

Specifically, the meeting will see the Prime Minister and Technology Secretary set out the government’s principles and values towards protecting kids. They will also press for answers from companies on what they’re doing to keep kids safe and get them to respond to the concerns previously laid out by parents.

Commenting on the matter, the PM said:

“I will take whatever steps necessary to keep children safe online. Today is about making sure social media companies step up and take responsibility.

The consequences of failing to act are stark. We owe it to parents, and to the next generation, to put children’s safety first – because they won’t forgive us if we don’t.”

This meeting takes place against the backdrop of the government’s Growing Up in the Online World consultation, which has gotten more than 45,000 responses to proposals aimed at protecting children’s wellbeing online. It will close in six weeks on May 26. It is looking whether to introduce a minimum age for social media, limits on addictive design features, and stronger safeguards around AI chatbots for young people.

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