I didn't see this being talked about much on here but Starmer spoke about the UK's potential under-16s social media ban and age restrictions on VPNs yesterday
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/16/starmer-vows-fast-track-social-media-law-under-16s-ban
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/16/social-media-restrictions-keir-starmer-announced

He appears not to be fully committed to a social media ban and he is apparently listening to opposition to it from both childrens' charities and actual teenagers. So it's not as bad as it could be, although I still don't trust the prick of course

He's sort of half heartedly floating the idea of banning infinite scrolling/autoplay for teens or something like that as a compromise which is fairly stupid but beats a full ban I suppose

On his own blog (did anyone even know he had one?)
https://keirstarmer.substack.com/p/giving-children-the-space-to-grow
amongst the expected bollocks he seems to demonstrate at least some understanding of nuance suggesting the specific ways algorithmic social media has evolved recently may be problematic and not just "kids online bad"

so I would hope that means even if he does end up backing some kind of ban, it would be narrowly targeted and not anything like the horrendous Lords amendment which would block under-16s from literally all online communication as worded

however I do think this line "stop kids getting around age limits" probably hints at age verification on VPNs which no doubt the govt are well in favour of and also understand it would probably be unpopular hence why nobody is saying it outright

there will be a consultation on exactly what measures should be taken, but apparently they're tacking a clause onto bills already going through parliament which will allow them to then rush through implementing those measures using so-called Henry VIII powers. which sounds fine and democratic