More than three months have passed since a large-scale consultation was launched on the touchy subject of a social media ban for under-16s in the UK.
When it was first opened at the beginning of March, there was widespread clamour for action from campaigners and top politicians, while the House of Lords had tried to force the government’s hand.
On May 27, the consultation came to an end with a response promised this summer. It is likely to come within a matter of weeks rather than months.
In the meantime, ministers including Science and Tech Secretary Liz Kendall have been heavily hinting that the end result will indeed be some form of ban.
Last month, she told the Sunday Mirror that blocking under-16s from accessing social media is ‘definitely on the table’, with nine in 10 parents telling the consultation they wanted it to happen.
Kendall said: ‘We haven’t yet made up our mind, but I think it’s quite clear that something drastic has to happen to provide the kind of support that parents want.’
Everything is changing, all the time
Cut through political noise and understand how the Westminster chaos actually affects your life with Metro’s politics newsletter Alright, Gov? Sign up here.
But there’s a chance not every platform will fall under the ban if it is introduced.
The Sun on Sunday has reported the YouTube Kids app, a version of the popular video sharing site suitable for children, would not be blocked under the plans.
This would bring the UK into line with Australia’s ban, which was introduced in December last year and has been the main catalyst for a wave of bans being brought in around the world.
Canberra does not stop under-16s from accessing YouTube Kids, Google Classroom, Facebook Messenger, Pinterest, Discord, Steam or Whatsapp.
Instead, it has clamped down on ten major platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube.
A spokesperson for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology said: ‘We don’t comment on speculation about future announcements.
‘We’ve been clear we are determined to act quickly, but we will do so in a way that is effective, enforceable and genuinely keeps children safe.
‘As we’ve previously said, we will set out the government’s response by the summer, and importantly we already have the powers to act within months rather than years.’
According to the Mirror, more than 100,000 people responded to the consultation including around 40,000 parents, with Kendall saying the numbers in support of a ban ‘shows how strongly parents feel’.
However, not everyone is so firmly in favour.
Scotland’s children’s commissioner Nicola Killean wrote to the consultation to say the evidence on bans so far is ‘limited, mixed, and still emerging’.
She added: ‘Blanket restrictions can risk shifting responsibility away from platforms and onto children.’
In January, an academic leading research into the impact of Australia’s social media ban also urged the UK government to wait for stronger evidence.
Professor Kathy Modecki told Metro: ‘It would be premature for other areas or countries to follow suit without yet accessing data regarding this national experiment.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.