Starmer tells tech bosses children's online safety 'cannot go on like this'

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has told social media bosses "things cannot go on like this" in a meeting at Downing Street discussing children's safety online. Executives from Meta, Snap, YouTube's parent company Google, TikTok and X are expected to be questioned by Sir Keir and technology secretary Liz Kendall on how they are making their platforms safer for children. Sir Keir said while he believed social media could be made safer for British children, curbing access would be "preferable to a world where harm is the price of participation". It comes as the government continues to consult on whether to ban social media for under-16s, following similar measures introduced in Australia. Downing Street said the executives in attendance included Google UK managing director Kate Alessi, Markus Reinisch, a public policy chief at Meta, and Wifredo Fernandez, director of global government affairs at X. Alistair Law, director of public policy for northern Europe at TikTok, and Snap's Europe president Ronan Harris were also present at Thursday's meeting. Ahead of the meeting, Number 10 said some social media companies had already "stepped up" by putting in place protections like disabling auto-play for children by default and giving more control to parents over screen time. On Thursday, Starmer cited concerns raised by parents and experts over social media's impact on children's concentration, sleep, relationships and worldview. "The evidence is mounting and the status quo simply cannot be allowed to stand," he said. "It's clear to me that parents aren't asking us for tweaks at the edges, they're asking us whether a system that clearly isn't working for children should be allowed to continue at all. Companies have to grip this and work with us to do better by British children." Prof Gina Neff, head of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, said the meeting was a way for the government to appear "on the front foot" with the situation. "This is also letting the government stay strong on online harms in a moment where there's been changing geopolitical pressures on the government to be easy on US companies," she added. On Wednesday evening, UK MPs rejected calls to ban social media for under-16s, which had been backed by peers in the House of Lords, for a second time. Ministers argued a ban was premature as the government was already considering introducing its own restrictions and MPs instead voted to give ministers powers to bring in their own rules. However, Conservative shadow education secretary Laura Trott said: "Labour MPs have once again failed parents and children by voting against a ban on social media for under-16s and against removing smartphones from schools. Other countries are waking up to the harms, but under Keir Starmer the UK is falling behind." Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said: "The time for half-measures is over - we need action now to restrict the most harmful platforms for under-16s." Recent research from internet safety charity the Molly Rose Foundation found more than 60% of underage Australians are still using social media despite a ban on under-16s introduced in December 2025. The charity, which has campaigned against an Australia-style ban in the UK, was established by the family of Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 at the age of 14 after viewing self-harm and suicide content on platforms including Instagram. Andy Burrows, chief executive of Molly Rose Foundation, said he welcomed the meeting called by the prime minster but said it should not end with more "hollow promises" from tech bosses. "Keir Starmer must turn his welcome rhetoric into action with a clear commitment in the King's Speech to a new Online Safety Act that finally calls time on cavalier business models that put profit before safety," he said. Prof Amy Orben, digital mental health expert at Cambridge University, said it was important the companies and their underlying business models were held to account. "Social media companies' increasingly powerful algorithms have caused concern across the population, with young people and parents telling us that they experience struggles to disengage from the online world," she said.