ukpol
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
ukpol
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
ukpol
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
ukpol
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
ukpol
so when this consultation starts, I don't know when it will happen or what form it will take at this point, i think people need to be really fucking on the ball about participating and making a strong case against a blanket age limit & ID requirement for social media, VPNs or any other online comms
ukpol
don't wait until this has all gone through and the measures have been rammed through parliament and it's too late to do shit about it!! everyone's kicking up a stink about discord at the moment but companies pulling that kind of shit is precisely downstream of laws like this!!
ukpol
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"