Social media ban for kids: Why is Starmer stalling?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
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Summary
MPs are voting again on a social media ban for U16s today - but the government has only committed to a consultation on the move so as it stands it's unlikely to become law. The clamour for the move is growing, and public opinion is strongly in favour of restricting social media use to adults only. So why is Keir Starmer dragging his feet and losing any capital he could gain from moving on it? Would a ban even work? And what impact is big tech having on our teenagers and children?
Later, after his historic ousting of Viktor Orban, Peter Magyar has wasted no time in trying to deconstruct his populist hold on the country. He's lashed out at state TV channels who'd banned him from their networks in opposition - and visited the country's president, telling him he was unfit to serve. Will his attempts to start a new chapter in Hungary work?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK commercial banking, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:10.1 | This is a global player original podcast. Whether or not to ban social media or at the very least more heavily regulated social media for the under 16s. |
| 0:20.5 | It seems really strange. The idea |
| 0:23.0 | that Kirstama wouldn't get behind it because there is a political win to be had there quite |
| 0:28.8 | quickly. We're not saying ban kids from using Google, go and search things up. There's no way Biden |
| 0:33.6 | administration should have allowed Elon Musk to buy X. I take my cues from Professor Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Anxious Generation. |
| 0:43.1 | He suggests 16. |
| 0:44.6 | I think that's a prudent step. |
| 0:46.5 | I think that that doesn't mean that kids are, you know, completely mature at 16. |
| 0:50.9 | But the worst cases of social media addiction that I confront in my law practice |
| 0:55.2 | are the kids that have gone online and gone on social media when they're 8, 9, 10. I think that |
| 1:01.0 | is a time when they have very, very little impulse control where their brains are really in a state |
| 1:07.5 | of development. When kids get to be 16, I think they have more fortitude to resist the addictive elements |
| 1:15.7 | and more strength going forward. |
| 1:17.8 | I think that would be a productive step. |
| 1:19.7 | That's Matthew Bergman, the campaigning lawyer who's taken on YouTube and met us, |
| 1:24.9 | speaking to us yesterday on the newsagents, |
| 1:27.4 | about why there needs to be a social media ban for children under 16. |
| 1:32.3 | There are about a dozen countries now set to Agegate social media accounts. |
| 1:38.6 | Should Kirstama be getting ahead of the game? |
| 1:41.8 | Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:47.8 | Thank you. be getting ahead of the game. Welcome to the newsagents. The Newsagents. It's John. It's Maitliss. It's Lewis. And this question of whether or not to |
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