UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that the government must examine addictive social media features such as infinite scroll to encourage healthier online habits for children.
Concerns over online content
Speaking at a morning event, Starmer warned that even exposure to seemingly harmless online content could affect children’s development. He highlighted features designed to keep users continuously engaged, including autoplay and infinite scrolling.
Upcoming consultation
The UK government will launch a three-month consultation in the coming weeks to review children’s online safety, with a focus on whether under-16s should be banned from social media. Starmer said the government intends to act swiftly on the consultation’s findings, targeting specific design features even if it does not impose a full ban.
“Some of the addictive features on social media that mean you never stop scrolling, or once you watch one thing, another thing comes up and you’re on your screen the whole time, we need to look at that,” Starmer said. “Even if it’s good content, the question is how do we get people off it and not simply on their screen?”
International context
Starmer reiterated the concerns in a Radio 2 interview, noting that social media is designed to keep young people on-screen, not off. His comments follow a preliminary finding by the European Commission earlier this month that TikTok’s infinite scroll and autoplay features breach the Digital Services Act.
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