Britain plans to strengthen child protection supervision on social platforms, Starmer warns technology giants that the consequences will be "very serious"

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will summon executives from a number of social media giants to the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday to emphasize that these platforms "can no longer turn a blind eye" in protecting minors. The British government is also preparing for a major round of regulatory tightening on the safety of children on social media. This move comes against the backdrop of a series of measures including the entry into force of the Online Safety Law and mandatory age verification on adult websites, showing the government’s stance on further tightening network supervision and strengthening the online protection of minors.

According to information disclosed by the government, the meeting will be attended by senior executives from companies such as Meta, Snap, Google and YouTube, TikTok and X. The core purpose of the meeting is to urge these platforms to make more substantive progress in child protection. The government said the meeting was "of great significance for parents" and hoped that by putting pressure on social platforms, it would ensure children can grow up in a relatively safe and supportive online environment.

The British government also admitted that some technology companies have introduced some protective measures in recent years, such as turning off autoplay by default for children's accounts, providing parents with more granular screen time control, and setting curfews. However, the government believes that existing measures are "far from enough", and Starmer will ask the platform to make more radical adjustments in areas such as limiting addictive design and reducing exposure to harmful content at the meeting.

In this meeting, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Science and Technology will clearly explain the government's principles and values ​​in protecting children to business representatives, and ask each company to detail the measures currently in place to protect children. Participating companies were also asked to respond head-on to specific concerns previously raised by parents and the public, including issues such as inductive algorithmic recommendations, lack of effective age verification mechanisms, and the spread of harmful content.

Starmer said in an official statement that he "will take all necessary steps" to keep children safe online, stressing that the day's meeting "is about ensuring that social media companies hold themselves accountable." He warned that the consequences of failure to take action were "dire" and that the government "has a responsibility to parents and the next generation to put children's safety first, otherwise they will not forgive us".

This “confrontation” with technology giants took place during the “Growing Up in the Online World” public consultation process launched by the government. The relevant questionnaire has received more than 45,000 responses. The consultation will last until May 26 and will focus on soliciting public opinion on issues such as whether to set a minimum age limit for social media use, whether to set limits on the design of addictive products, and whether to introduce stricter safety protection measures for AI chatbots targeted at teenagers.