The Big Tech’s Little Victims campaign is issuing a final warning to prime minister Keir Starmer ahead of his decision on a social media ban for under-16s, taking its message directly to Westminster with a mobile billboard outside parliament.
New polling shows the public backs raising the age of social media access to 16 (70%) and agrees weaker measures won’t do enough to protect children from harm (63%).
Campaigners say this is a once-in-a-premiership decision for Starmer and one that will shape both children’s safety and his political legacy. They say the prime minister must now decide whether to ‘stand up to big tech and protect children, or cave into industry pressure and settle for weak measures that leave them exposed’.
With the government expected to respond to its consultation about growing up in the online world before the Makerfield by-election on June 18, campaigners say Starmer must prioritise the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
The mobile billboard outside parliament reads: ‘Prime minister, how do you want to be remembered? As the man who stood up to big tech? Or the man who caved to billionaires? Protect children. Raise the age to 16.’
The Big Tech’s Little Victims campaign says the watered-down social media restrictions explored in a government pilot – including 9pm-to-7am curfews, one-hour daily caps and app-by-app parental controls – would create the appearance of action without delivering real protection.
“This is Keir Starmer’s moment of truth. The public backs action, parents have spoken, and the evidence is overwhelming. Anything less than a full ban would mean caving in to big tech,” says Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union.
“He has heard from parents and families living with the consequences of online harm, and he has heard from big tech lobbyists – now he must decide whose side he is on. There can be no more delay and no more half measures. The government must act to ban social media for under-16s.”
