Bereaved parents hail Starmer's social media ban for under-16s after landmark restriction announced

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The Prime Minister announced the ban in response to concerns that social media is unsafe, making children miserable and could cause lasting damage to their mental health.

In response to the announcement, several parents of children who have lost their lives after encountering harm online have weighed in.

Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey, has welcomed the ban and said that she wishes she had more support from the Government when her daughter was still alive.

Speaking the LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, the bereaved mother and online safety campaigner told Andrew that "after three years of campaigning, it's definitely what I wanted to hear."

Ms Ghey added: "There might be some young people that are really concerned about this decision and it's important that we make sure that there is support in place for people that are under 16 or families that might need it."

Read More: 'I needed support when Brianna was alive': Murdered teen's mother backs Starmer's social media ban

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Brianna, who was 16 at the time of her death, was murdered by teenagers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe in a frenzied stabbing attack in a park in Cheshire back in 2023.

During their trial, the court heard that Jenkinson had admitted to searching for "dark material" relating to murder and torture on the dark web before murdering Brianna.

Transgender girl Brianna had also been exposed to online harms before her murder, Esther said.

She told Andrew: "The main reason why I campaign is because of the suffering that Brianna experienced [in] the 2 years running up to her death.

"She was completely addicted to social media, she had an eating disorder, she was self-harming, and all of this was being exacerbated by the harms that she was seeing online."

Ms Ghey told Andrew that she wished she had the support of the ban before losing Brianna, saying: "Something that I've said from the start of my campaigning is that parents need support. I needed support when Brianna was alive."

The sentiments were echoed by Ellen Roome, whose son Jools Sweeney, 14, died while doing an online "blackout" challenge at their home in Cheltenham in April 2022.

Ms Roome told LBC she welcomes the social media ban for under-16s but said bereaved parents need more clarity on how it will work.

Ms Roome has since campaigned alongside other bereaved parents for social media restrictions to make the internet a safer place for teenagers.

Before travelling to Westminster to hear a debate by MPs, said she was hopeful the ban would have the desired effects.

She told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: "I'm delighted with his speech, it was very passionate and informative.

"We need to make sure how this is going to happen, how is this legislation going to come into effect, and when is it going to come into effect.

"It has been reported that highly effective age controls need to be in place and then looking at not just naming the sites but looking at the harmful features, so making sure that algorithmic data being fed to children is removed and stranger contact is again blocked."

The ban follows Australia who announced their restrictions last year, which has reportedly led to just 40% compliance rate, with youngsters using virtual private networks (VPNs) and other methods to get around it.

But UK government ministers have labelled the ban here an "Australia plus" version with stricter legislation said to be enforced by next Spring.

Ms Roome told Nick she was confident that the results of UK's ban would go further than that in Australia, where ten major platforms have been made prohibited.

But the Prime Minister has also announced the UK will impose curfews for accessing online content as well as enforcing restrictions for chatrooms.

Ms Roome joined a group of bereaved families who visited Downing Street last month to urge Sir Keir to impose restrictions.

The Government intends to use highly effective age assurance (HEAA) measures to make it more difficult for children to dodge the ban.

Those methods could include facial age estimates, photo ID or bank checks according to guidance from regulator Ofcom.

Critics of the Australian ban say it has not gone far enough, with research showing around 60% of children still have access.

But speaking to LBC earlier, US lawyer Matthew Bergman said: "If there are 40% less kids on social media under 16, those are 40% less kids that are being sent suicidal content, anorexic content, and bullying. That's huge.

"If I could tell you that in the UK we could reduce bullying by 40%, you'd say, where do I sign up?

"It's very much to me a glass half full, not a glass half empty. The fact that we may not have 100% compliance, what law do you have 100% compliance to?

"You're never going to have 100% safety. You don't have cars that are 100% safe."

A previous statement from Gloucestershire Constabulary stated: "We supported the Sweeney family and coroner’s office throughout an investigation into the cause of his death.

"As part of this Jools’s phone was given to police and a review of the contents took place, as well as the manual review of a TikTok account. Nothing was found as part of these searches to provide any answers."

Not all bereaved parents have been supportive of the ban, however.

Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly Rose Russell took her own life after consuming suicide and self-harm content aged just 14, said the ban does not sufficiently protect youngsters.

Writing in the Guardian, Ian wrote: "Today, the prime minister could have announced a decisive plan for change that banned personalised algorithms for teens across the board, and compelled tech companies to change their business models and tackle product safety at source.

"Instead, he has left algorithmic harm wide open to young people, with a ban that leaves more questions than answers."

Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged some youngsters would try to find their way around a ban but said he would not compromise on the “safety and happiness of our children”.

Starmer’s move follows LBC-led drive to make children safer online, after a series of Online Safety Days exposing the risks young people face on social media.

The restrictions, set to be passed by Christmas and in place by spring next year, will leave technology firms, rather than children, liable for enforcement action if they fail to comply.

There will also be measures to prevent children from chatting with adults on gaming and livestreaming platforms.

The Government is also looking at potential overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under-18s, with more details expected next month.

As LBC reported last month, social media companies TikTok and YouTube were accused by the online safety regulator of ‘not making websites safer for children’.

Last year, LBC revealed teenagers were turning to AI chatbots to help combat loneliness.

Artificial intelligence (AI) “romantic companion” chatbots designed to simulate sexual relationships with users will have a minimum age of 18, while more general AI tools will have similar functions restricted for children.

Sir Keir said: “We’re giving children their childhoods back.”

In a Downing Street press conference, he said the ban was a “big moment for our country”.

The Prime Minister, a father of two teenagers, said: “This is not something I do lightly, and I will not present it as cost-free, as if social media has brought no benefits to young people, because clearly that is wrong.

“But government is always about choices, and it’s clear to me that a full ban is the right choice.”

He said “every parent can see it with their own eyes” that “social media is making children unhappy”.

He said social media was “making it easier for bullies to harass and abuse” children and “could even be harming their mental health – exposing them to content that is dangerous, because that’s what grabs the attention”.

Sir Keir suggested YouTube Kids, Lego Play and Google Classroom would not be covered by the prohibition.

A spokesperson for the watchdog said: “So far, Ofcom has driven some of the strongest changes of any online safety regulation in the world, from widespread age checks to grooming protections for children.

“But the industry needs to go much further to make people safe.

“The Government has entrusted us to build on this progress with new measures to protect children, and we’re ready to work closely with them as the detailed regulations take shape.”

The Prime Minister’s actions were met with applause from campaigners invited into No 10 to hear his speech.

Calls for a social media ban have been met with concerns regarding freedom of speech, as questions are raised regarding whether the Government is trying to police information that children can access and will this eventually be expanded to adults.

But, Sir Keir said that this isn't a question of free speech, it's "about basic protection of children".

He said: “How many people in this room are prepared to defend adult strangers contacting children online? And we know what happens when that develops into the sort of abuse and worse.

“How many people are prepared to stand up and say ‘that’s free speech and I wouldn’t do anything about it’ any more than you’d say we wouldn’t take measures to stop that happening in the offline world?

“I think it’s extraordinary that somehow we’ve got ourselves to a position where until now we’ve shrugged our shoulders – I genuinely think it’s difficult to think in what circumstances any of us would put our children into a place where unknown adults could have access to them without us knowing anything about it one to one, we wouldn’t do it."

His announcement came shortly before he travelled to the G7 summit in France, where he will be joined by world leaders including US president Donald Trump.

There has been resistance from the Trump administration to action against social media sites which are largely based in the US.

Sir Keir said he had spoken to Mr Trump and would discuss the issue with him again but stressed that many countries around the world were “grappling” with the issue of children’s safety online.

Tory former education minister Lord Nash, who led parliamentary efforts to change the law, said: “The Government has done an excellent job on this and should be commended.

“With robust enforcement this will truly be a game-changer.”

But Save The Children UK’s senior adviser Jeffrey Demarco said: “We are concerned that a blanket ban may look protective on paper, but instead pushes children into less regulated spaces, where they are less likely to seek help when something goes wrong.”

A spokesperson for Meta said in response: "Like others, we don’t think bans will achieve this goal.

"As we’ve seen in Australia, bans risk isolating teens from online communities and information, and driving them to unregulated alternatives that lack built-in protections and parental controls.

"To be both effective and easy for parents, any restrictions must be underpinned by an age verification system on devices so people aren’t asked to hand over ID to dozens of individual services to prove their age.

"We will continue to engage with the Government and Ofcom as they work to implement this policy.

"YouTube similarly warned that the bank could push children toward 'less safe services.'"