Social Media Ban for Under-16s

Lord Nash Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash (Con)]

My Lords, I express my gratitude to the Government, including our Minister, the Secretary of State for DSIT and Minister Narayan, for coming to the conclusions that they have as a result of the consultation. They have listened and are clearly determined to act effectively. I add my gratitude to the bereaved parents who have endured unimaginable pain to get to this point. I was grateful to the Minister for her time earlier today, when she met a number of noble Lords and said that she will share the draft regulations with interested noble Lords, in advance of them being published. I agree that a spirit of co-operation on this issue, which clearly has cross-party support, would be helpful. I would be grateful if she could confirm that at the Dispatch Box today.

In my conversations with the social media companies, they have all said that if there is a level playing field, they will accept the situation. The proof of that pudding will, of course, be in the eating, but I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm, either today or, more likely, in due course, that all apps which are user-to-user and have the ability to post content, and where algorithms are involved, will not only be in scope but will not be able to provide those services to under-16s—and, if not, that the criteria on which they will be exempted will be very clear and consistent, to minimise the risk of legal challenge.

On enforcement, I would hope that because the criteria the Government are talking about are very black and white, there should be minimum scope for delay in effecting enforcement. I would also be grateful if the Minister could confirm, I hope today, that geotagging and location sharing are within the concept of “communication with strangers”. But, given that apart from—

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Wilson of Sedgefield) (Lab)]

These should be short interjections with questions, not statements, if the noble Lord does not mind.

[Lord Nash (Con)]

But, given that apart from in relation to VPNs the Government have gone further than I was asking for, I commend their approach and particularly like its dynamic nature, which enables them, under the powers taken in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, to come forward with not just part 2 in July but parts 3 and 4, and so on, as technology moves on apace, so that we can play catch-up fast.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Nash, for his comments and, moreover, for his engagement over the last months—in fact, it was longer—with me on this topic. We will be able to continue that engagement—obviously, there will be scrutiny in the House—but also outside the Chamber. We committed to sharing the regulations with opposition spokespeople and the chairs of the Select Committees for scrutiny, and we will follow through on that.

On the definition and the scope, we plan to use the same model as Australia; that would capture user-to-user platforms whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to post material, alongside algorithms. The details of how those criteria will apply in the UK will be set out later this year. We have also said that purely educational services obviously will not be in scope.

On the question of enforcement, as I mentioned earlier, this is an incredibly important part of our thinking and approach. The Secretary of State and the department have interacted frequently with Ofcom. Noble Lords have made clear the importance of effective enforcement by Ofcom, and we have written to Ofcom to ask it to ensure that we can have robust and effective enforcement of this ban. The CEO of Ofcom has written back, confirming that that is what it will take forward.

Finally, on geotagging and location services, I will write to the noble Lord on that specific question.