Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “We have to listen to young people. They don’t want a ban, but they do want to be protected from addictive, infinite scrolling; dangerous strangers trying to chat to them and explicit content they wished they hadn’t seen.
“I have called for action to protect children up to 18 and today’s announcements are a positive step. Young people tell me they try to cut down social media use but find it hard – so restrictions on infinite-scrolling are welcome.
“I want to know more about how the policies, such as a curfew, will be delivered and will be watching closely to make sure they are effective – alongside pushing Ofcom to make full use of its powers to make the online world safer for children.
“Children learn, connect, and play online – our aim should be a digital world that is safe for young people. Ultimately, we need to flip the debate. We should not have to restrict children from activities that they benefit from. Until those services and platforms can prove to us that they can support young people’s safety and wellbeing, however, they should be banned from having access to children.”
