Social media time limits for children considered by government-OxBig News Network

The government is considering introducing tougher online safety measures to limit the amount of time children can spend on social media, the BBC understands.

Proposals include a two-hour cap on the use of individual social media apps and a 22:00 curfew, as first reported by the Sunday People and the Mirror.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said he was looking at the “addictive nature of some of the apps and smartphones”, when asked whether time limits would be considered.

But an online safety campaigner has accused the government of delaying bringing in new laws to protect children.

Ian Russell, whose daughter, Molly, took her own life at 14 after seeing harmful content online, said: “Every day the government has delayed bringing in tougher online safety laws we’ve seen more young lives lost and damaged because of weak regulation and inaction by big tech.”

Mr Russell, who backed the previous government’s Online Safety Act, said only “stronger and more effective” legislation would “finally change the dial on fundamentally unsafe products and business models that prioritise engagement over safety.”

“Parents up and down the country would be delighted to see the prime minister act decisively to quell the tsunami of harm children face online, but sticking plasters will not do the job.”

Kyle told the BBC he had not been able to speak publicly about the government’s plans to toughen online safety laws because legislation passed by the previous Conservative government in 2023 had yet to be enacted.

“This year we’ve had illegal content that needs to be taken down, but in July, age-appropriate material must be supplied by platforms, otherwise there’ll be criminal sanctions against them,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

He said that he had been looking carefully at what government needed to do next to “nail down harder” on safety, “understand what a healthy online life for children” looked like and “stop the barriers” towards achieving that.

In January, Kyle told the BBC that laws on internet safety were “very uneven” and “unsatisfactory”, following calls from campaigners to tighten the rules.

The minister expressed his “frustration” with the Online Safety Act but did not commit to making changes to the legislation.

A Whitehall source later told the BBC there were no plans to repeal the act.