Liz Kendall MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  I am really glad that my hon. Friend has raised this issue. There was an important point in the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ response precisely about the physical health implications, as well as mental health implications, for young people. She will know that we have already published guidance on screen time use for under-fives, and we are currently reviewing it for five to 16 year-olds. I listened carefully to that medical evidence, and that is one of the reasons that we are taking this action—although, of course, I know that there will be more to do.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  I am so sorry to hear about what happened to Leo. I heard what my hon. Friend describes so many times during the course of the consultation, and many of the representations we had—from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal College of General Practitioners and others—raised precisely the issues that she talks about. One of the reasons why the ban is so important is that we must protect children from those serious harms. Two thirds of GPs and two thirds of hospital clinicians say that every single week they see something that they think is a direct consequence of social media. That is a wake-up call to us all.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  I agree with every single word my hon. Friend says. This is about liberating children from what can sometimes be a terribly oppressive life online. It is about helping parents to do what they want. They have faced a tidal wave of stuff that they have been trying to fight off. We are just saying, “We want to back you to do what is right for kids.” I personally thank my hon. Friend for her support.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  That is not part of the announcement that I have made today. I am always willing to look at people’s arguments on different issues. On a separate issue, we have now taken action to try to preserve some of the data, through data preservation notices, for parents who have lost their children, and who want to see what they were looking at online, so I think we have to tread carefully on this.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  That is one of the issues that I thought extremely carefully about—it is one of the things that made me unsure as we were going through this. Young people are still able to go online. I think that new resources and new support will be available in different ways that do not meet the model that Australia uses, but I am more than happy to speak to my hon. Friend and members of the LGBTQ community. It is really important that people who live or love in a different way are still able to connect, especially if they do not feel able to do so in their own community.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  It is not an either/or—either enforce the Online Safety Act or introduce a ban. There are clear requirements on tech companies to remove illegal content for everybody and harmful content for children, and we will continue to enforce them. Just because we know children will try to get around these measures does not mean we should not put them in place. There is more that we can do on enforcement. It is for the tech companies to keep children safe—they have had ample opportunity to do so, and now we are saying that they can no longer provide their services to children.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to say that what I have announced today is not a silver bullet for all these challenges; I am setting out what we can do specifically on the online world, but the truth is that we have to provide that wider support. As always, I am very happy to talk to her about what more we can do across Government to protect those vulnerable children and young people in order to deal with the issues she raises.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her question. As I think I have said in this House before, I will look again at the recommendations of that report. My right hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South (Ian Murray), who is a Minister in both my Department and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, is chairing a joint taskforce on advertising to look at what more we can do in the online world. The Online Safety Act sets out very clear legal duties on providers to remove what is illegal for everyone and what is harmful for children, but I am looking at what more can be done, particularly during times of crisis. That includes boosting trusted sources and making it easier for people to reset their algorithms, and as I have said, we will lay updates before Parliament this week to bring into effect Ofcom’s strengthened code of practice for what happens in times of crisis. However, I am sure that, as always, my hon. Friend will push us to go further.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  I am going to come back to the House in July and say more about that. Chatbots telling kids not to eat, and all that dreadful stuff, is wrong, but if there are mechanisms for supporting therapy that could get my child and adolescent mental health services waiting list down in Leicester, I would be interested. Properly regulated therapy sites could be good, but I will come back and say more about that. I want to get rid of the bad ones and protect the good ones, but that is more complicated, so we need to take a bit more time.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  Today marks a defining moment for our children, and for future generations, as we lay the foundations of a new settlement for the online world. We want to ensure that children have the best start in life and the freedom to be children again, and to put power back into parents’ hands. Up and down the country, parents are grappling with social media—what their children are seeing, how much screen time they should have, who they are communicating with and whether they are safe. Many children love connecting and interacting on social media, but others struggle with their mental health, concentration and self-esteem. The police, children’s charities and far too many tragically bereaved families have seen for themselves the serious risks and harm that social media brings. While these concerns are widely shared, there are different, often strongly held views about the best way forward. We launched our consultation on growing up in the online world to ensure that everyone’s voices were heard. The response has been overwhelming. We have had over 116,000 replies, including 54,000 from parents and 14,000 from children. We have heard from charities, teachers’ organisations, the police and medical professionals, and from countless Members of Parliament—not only those on the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee and the Education Committee, but my hon. Friends the Members for Plymouth Moor View (Fred Thomas), for Croydon East (Natasha Irons), for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward), for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie), and so many more besides. The progress report that we are publishing today sets out lots of different perspectives, but our consultation showed overwhelmingly that parents and children are concerned about what children are being exposed to online—harmful content; content that is completely inappropriate for their age; and abuse and exploitation. Parents are worried about the impact on children’s sleep, school, physical health and emotional wellbeing. Above all, parents are crying out for change. Nine out of 10 parents who responded to the consultation told us that they want an outright ban on social media, as did three quarters of parents who responded to our large-scale representative survey and the 113,000 parents who signed Daisy and Joe’s Smartphone Free Childhood petition. Keeping children safe online has been my top priority since day one in this job. I have listened to calls, especially from bereaved families, to act as quickly as possible. Today I announce our first steps, with more to come next month. I can confirm that we will ban social media companies from providing their services to under-16s. [Applause.]

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  There are already requirements under the Online Safety Act for companies to remove illegal content, and those deal with the issue of foreign interference, particularly during elections. As I said, I am looking again at some of what the Science and Technology Committee recommended on this issue, because of exactly the concerns that my hon. Friend raises.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  It is more complicated than it seems, but in the end, to govern is to choose. There are already strong requirements on companies under the Online Safety Act, as I said, and the fines and potential service blocks are already in the Act. We are developing further measures, but that is how we will hold companies’ feet to the fire.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  Yes, our list of exemptions is precisely so that we do not capture those educational resources. I have seen in my own constituency how those brilliant things can help young people learn and get on, and narrow the disadvantage gap between rich and poor kids, so I really want to make sure they are exempt.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is absolutely right. In England, we are looking deeply at the curriculum. Under the new relationships, sex and health education guidance, children will be taught about social media, AI and deepfakes, but the wider curriculum review will look at critical thinking about how we can trust things we see online, where they come from and what the implications are—whether that is misogyny or antisemitism. We need to prepare children for the future. We are certainly doing so in England, but I am more than happy to share with the hon. Member the evidence of that.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  I understand that this announcement will be extremely difficult for many children who are on social media today—I know that it will cause a lot of worry and disquiet. I want to ensure that their views and voices continue to be heard. In the results of our survey, I was quite struck by just how many children want risky features restricted: two thirds said they did. More than half want restrictions on infinite scroll, as do almost two thirds on explicit image sharing and location sharing, and almost half on live streaming. I think children do want to see change. It will be hard for them to manage the transition, but that is what we need to do to build a better future.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right. We are doing what I call “Australia plus plus”: there is the ban on the providers—the platforms providing their services for children—and there is also the ability to deal with additional features and functions. We now have the legislative power to do that, and I hope it will allow us to keep up. However, I read the Committee’s report carefully, and was very struck not only by the support for an outright statutory ban but by the conclusion that this was a “foundation for action, rather than a complete solution.” I strongly agree with that. I do not think that this is the whole story, and we will continue to engage with my hon. Friend and other Members of her Committee, because we must keep pace with change.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  First, young people can still go online. I think that this announcement will actually support news organisations—the BBC, Sky and all sorts of others—to do even more to provide news information, perhaps created by children for children, in an appropriate and effective manner. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Arts, who is also a Minister in my Department, is specifically looking at that issue. It is not only five-second TikTok reels that can teach children about news; there are other ways of doing that, and we want to support them.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a passionate advocate. We are absolutely clear about the fact that these so-called romantic, or companion, sexualised chatbots are wrong for children, and we will ban them, but we will ban that function in general chatbots as well; we have seen it on X, for instance. There is further to go in respect of AI chatbots, and, as I have said, I will make a further statement to the House in July on the other measures. I am more than happy to talk to my hon. Friend about that. The reason for today’s big announcement about the ban was that the sooner we made the announcement the sooner we could lay the regulations, have the vote and bring it into effect. As I have said, however, there is much more to do, and I shall be very happy to talk to my hon. Friend about this further.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  We have not set any targets or goals. I do think that more highly effective age verification measures will make a difference. As I said—I want to be honest—this is about today’s children, but it is even more about resetting the expectations and cultural norms of children growing up now so that kids will know they will not be on social media until they are 16.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  We have a brilliant, fantastic, world-leading gaming industry in this country. That is why we are not including games under the blanket ban. However, I have been really concerned by issues raised not just by hon. Members, but by the police and others, who have shown that a real, substantial risk is posed by strangers who are not playing with but directly communicating with and messaging children, and then taking them on to WhatsApp and grooming them. We are narrowly focusing on that issue.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  Yes. As I said, under the Online Safety Act we already have powers to fine companies up to 10% of their qualifying worldwide revenue and, should companies repeatedly refuse to obey the law, Ofcom can apply to the courts to block their services. We have not finalised the fines and consequences, but what I have said shows the direction of travel.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  We will come back to VPNs in July; I have commissioned further research about their usage. There are really important issues to balance here. Many people want to use VPNs for privacy—that is important—but we know that some children use them to get around restrictions. I will come back to that in July in our response to the consultation.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Social Media Ban for Under-16s · Hansard source

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  First, kids are savvy; social media has been an integral part of their lives, and they want to get around restrictions. I will be careful what I say this time, but just because children try to get around things does not mean that we do not have rules and boundaries. Secondly, we are trying to learn the lessons from Australia. It does not have the highly effective age-verification measures that we have. We want to put those measures in place here, but I am not going to claim that even those measures will mean that no kids are on social media platforms. We have got to take a decision and draw a line in the sand. This is as much about resetting the expectations of eight, nine and 10-year-olds, by saying, “You won’t be going on this until you’re 16.”

• 20 May 2026 · Child Protection Online · Hansard source

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  Ensuring that children have healthy and safe lives online is one of my top priorities. From making cyber-flashing and self-harm and suicide content the subject of priority offences under the Online Safety Act 2023 to banning nudification apps and standing up to Grok and X, I will leave no stone unturned to ensure that children are protected. Our consultation on growing up online closes next Tuesday, so there is still time to respond. I will bring forward proposals before the summer, and I intend to pass any legislation required by the end of the year.

• 20 May 2026 · Child Protection Online · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right: follow the money. I am highly aware of that, and we are determined to act. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Digital Government and Data is chairing the digital advertising taskforce, which is a joint effort between this Department and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to look at precisely these issues, because we want to ensure that illegal and harmful content is not rewarded.