Updated
Updated · POLITICO Europe · Jul 15
Starmer Leaves Under-16 Social Media Ban to Burnham as He Resigns
Updated
Updated · POLITICO Europe · Jul 15

Starmer Leaves Under-16 Social Media Ban to Burnham as He Resigns

3 articles · Updated · POLITICO Europe · Jul 15

Summary

  • Keir Starmer used one of his final acts before resigning as prime minister to push an under-16 social media ban, leaving prime-minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham to deliver the policy.
  • Liz Kendall, Starmer’s tech secretary, updated the plan on Wednesday and filled in some gaps left since last month’s headline announcement.
  • Big implementation questions still remain, with Burnham inheriting the hardest part: how the ban would actually work in practice.
  • The handover turns a politically high-profile child-safety pledge into an early test for Burnham’s incoming government.

Insights

As Australia's youth social media ban falters, how will Britain's new government avoid the same fate?
Is the UK's child social media ban a real fix, or a distraction from regulating Big Tech's addictive designs?