‘Like tobacco’: Wes Streeting calls for partial social media ban for under-16s

Streeting said that ‘big tech is borrowing the big tobacco playbook to avoid regulation’. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Social media companies should be treated like the tobacco industry, Wes Streeting has argued, as he called for a ban on under-16s accessing certain platforms.

Speaking publicly about the prospect of a ban for the first time since he left government, the former health secretary said one was needed because large technology companies were trying to dodge regulations.