{"id":593785,"date":"2026-04-30T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=593785"},"modified":"2026-04-30T07:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T07:30:00","slug":"uk-govt-promises-more-social-media-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=593785","title":{"rendered":"UK Gov’t Promises More Social Media “Restrictions”"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK Gov’t Promises More Social Media “Restrictions”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Kit Knightly via OffGuardian.org,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

While embattled PM\u00a0Sir<\/em>\u00a0Keir Starmer takes a pointless grilling on the even more pointless existence of Peter Mandelson, other members of his cabinet were busily paving the way for the next construction phase of our increasingly dystopian society.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky News earlier today, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson\u00a0promised<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cmore action to keep young people safe online, including around social media\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which is delightfully vague.<\/p>\n

Education Minister Olivia Bailey kept her cards similarly close to her chest, whilst trying to sound forceful:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is a question of how we act, not if, but to put this beyond any doubt, we are placing a clear statutory requirement that the Secretary of State \u2018must\u2019, rather than \u2018may\u2019, act [\u2026] We are clear that under any outcome, we will impose some form of age or functionality restrictions for children under 16.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So we know they\u2019re going to do\u00a0something<\/em>\u2026we just don\u2019t know what. And, if I had to guess, neither do Bridget or Olivia. Neither seems like the kind of people that get kept in the loop, and that flavour of waffle is usually the reserve of those who have no idea what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Many commenters \u2013 both for and against \u2013 have interpreted this promised action as an Australia-style social media ban for children. Certainly, that\u2019s what Conservative MP Laura Trott seems to think in her champagne-popping tweet:<\/p>\n

\u2026but the signs might be pointing in another direction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After all, the Social Media Ban is practically on the books. It was introduced as an amendment to the Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools bill, and has already passed the Lords four times. It could have become law already, but Ministers and MPs have repeatedly overturned the vote, declaring the need for further consultation.<\/p>\n

Then, earlier today and coinciding with this government pledge to take action, the Independent published a report that suggests Australia\u2019s\u00a0social media ban doesn\u2019t work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Two thirds of Australian teens still using social media despite under-16s ban<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The article quotes the head of the Molly Rose Foundation, who warns \u201can Australia-style ban would not deliver the improvements in online safety that parents and children deserved\u201d:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThese results raise major questions about the effectiveness of Australia\u2019s social media ban and show it would be a high stakes gamble for the UK to follow suit now,\u201d <\/strong>the foundation\u2019s head Andy Burrows said.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cProponents of a ban argue it offers an immediate and decisive firebreak but the early evidence from Australia shows it only lets tech firms off the hook and fails to give children the step change in online safety and wellbeing they need.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s interestingly timed, don\u2019t you think? Why discredit the ban if the plan is to follow suit?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sky\u2019s article has their Technology Reporter list potential alternatives, including bans on infinite scrolling, or \u201cdigital curfews\u201d that lock children\u2019s accounts after a certain time.<\/p>\n

It would be reasonable to assume, based on this, that whatever the UK government eventually does will be somehow\u2026different<\/em>. Perhaps stricter or enforced differently, perhaps centered on devices rather than platforms.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of possibilities.<\/p>\n

The head-scratching question is \u201cwhy?\u201d, and the only answer I can see that makes any sense is that Independent is telling the truth and Australia\u2019s ban\u00a0doesn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0work \u2013\u00a0 i.e for its real intended purpose (mass surveillance).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe, and this is rampant speculation, but\u00a0maybe<\/em>\u00a0the inevitable\u00a0uptick in VPN usage<\/a>\u00a0actually made it harder to track people\u2019s data and activity to the extent it offset the utility of and effort required in enforcing the ban.<\/p>\n

Like I said, speculation, but we have an explanandum in need of an explanation.<\/p>\n

Of course, it could be argued the specifics don\u2019t really matter \u2013 because no matter the legislation or regulation, it can only be enforced one way: By mandating age verification for everybody, and using that to introduce digital IDs.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s all heading in the same direction in the end, maybe picking apart the details is a waste of our time, maybe the differences only exist to create the illusion of variety or impression of dissenting views.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it could be there\u2019s something to learn, and perhaps in reading the wrinkles there\u2019s insights to be gained that could help us resist when the government finally tell us what \u201crestrictions\u201d they\u2019re putting in place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 04\/30\/2026 – 03:30<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK Gov’t Promises More Social Media “Restrictions” Authored by Kit Knightly via OffGuardian.org, While embattled PM\u00a0Sir\u00a0Keir Starmer takes a pointless grilling on the even more pointless existence of Peter Mandelson, other members of his cabinet were busily paving the way for the next construction phase of our increasingly dystopian society. Speaking to Sky News earlier… Continue reading UK Gov’t Promises More Social Media “Restrictions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":593786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-593785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=593785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/593786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=593785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=593785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=593785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}