Social media ban for UK under-16s ‘not on the cards’ for now, says minister

Peter Kyle said earlier this week than a ban was ‘on the table’. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

A social media ban for under-16s is “not on the cards at the moment”, a minister has said, as teenagers urged him to rethink plans to follow Australia’s lead and restrict access to sites such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.

Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science and technology, is trying to convince social media platforms to do more to prevent online harms, with new laws coming into effect next year that could result in heavy fines and even jail in cases where online safety is breached.