House of Lords vote in favour of teen social media ban for fourth time

The House of Lords voted 316 to 165, majority 151, in favour of Conservative former minister Lord Nash’s amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

MPs will be given the opportunity to vote on the amendment again when it returns to the Commons later on Monday, as part of a process known as parliamentary ping-pong.

The House of Commons rejected the ban for the third time just two days last week.

Education minister Olivia Bailey told the Commons that a consultation was the way forward before any plan to tackle social media-linked harms should be implemented.

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Members voted 260 to 161 – majority 99 – to reject an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which would have raised the age for access to social media deemed harmful to 16 within a 12-month window.

As part of a proposal tabled by Lord Nash, under-16s face being blocked from social media tools or websites which are thought to cause “obsessive, addictive or other unhealthy behaviours”.

They also face being banned from features which could expose them to “serious harm, manipulation or exploitation”, or illegal content such as extreme pornography or weapons sales.

But by backing Lord Nash’s new proposal, peers have agreed that ministers “must, rather than just ‘may’, raise the age of access for those harmful social media sites to 16 within 12 months”.

He pointed to Technology Secretary Liz Kendall’s appearance on TV when she said the Government must “look seriously” at how effective “highly effective age verification measures” are on social media.