Lisa Nandy calls under-16 social media ban a staging post for wider UK online safety action

UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy said in an interview published on 30 September that the government’s planned restrictions on social media for under-16s are only a ‘staging post’ in a wider effort to make online spaces safer. Her comments signal an appetite for further intervention, but she did not set out a complete new package or timetable. For families and technology companies, the immediate distinction is between restrictions already proposed, other commitments awaiting implementation and Nandy’s broader ambition.

‘We shouldn’t accept that this is the end,’ Nandy told the Guardian ahead of her Labour conference speech. She called for an active state that polices and regulates online spaces so people are safe. Her comparison was with a town centre deemed too unsafe for children: keeping them away, she argued, would not be an adequate substitute for making the place safer. Those remarks describe the direction she wants government to take; they do not themselves introduce a new legal duty.

When would the under-16 restrictions begin?

The government announced its plan to stop social media companies offering their services to under-16s in June. Its July response to a national consultation said the first regulations were intended to be laid before Parliament by the end of 2026, with the restrictions expected to come into effect in early 2027. The Guardian reported a March start. The measures were therefore still prospective when Nandy spoke, and the precise rules depend on the regulations that follow.

The July response also sets out protections for 16- and 17-year-olds rather than treating their sixteenth birthday as the end of safeguards. It proposes overnight access restrictions from midnight to 6am, muted notifications during those hours, and autoplay and personalised feeds switched off by default. The government says teenagers in that age group would be able to change those settings. Its response also describes action on AI chatbots and ways to reduce attempts to get around online safety protections.

What has Nandy committed to on devices and apps?

In a statement to Parliament on 8 September, Nandy said Apple and Google had made commitments after discussions with officials about protections built into devices. She said both companies had developed operating-system changes intended to make it harder for children to share nude imagery, and that work had progressed on blocking such imagery on underage devices. She also cited an Apple age-assurance feature tied to safeguards for iMessage and FaceTime. Her account describes commitments and development work, not a finding that the proposed protections are operating across all devices.

Nandy told MPs the government would introduce primary legislation requiring major technology platforms to build in device-level protections for children as soon as it could. She added that ministers would reassess whether legislation was needed if affected platforms developed and implemented technical solutions while that work was under way. She also said apps used by children would be required to prevent access to or sharing of nudity, while the government examined what legislation would be needed to deliver that requirement. The statement gave no enacted timetable for those app rules.

The device and app commitments answer part of the question raised by Nandy’s latest interview: ministers have named specific protections they want beyond social media access limits. Yet those commitments involve further legal work or implementation. The wider intervention she described to the Guardian remains less defined. Readers should not infer from her ‘staging post’ description that a further ban, a new bill with settled wording or an additional commencement date has been announced.

How does Nandy want platforms regulated?

Nandy told the Guardian that she had summoned technology companies to discuss online safety and was appalled that representatives of X did not attend. She also acknowledged a problem with Ofcom’s ability to enforce regulations and secure compliance with the Online Safety Act, saying laws depend on the ability to enforce them. That concern helps explain why she is pressing beyond announcements toward practical changes by platforms and regulators, although the interview did not specify a new enforcement power.

Her ambitions extend beyond blocking harmful material. The Guardian reported that she welcomed BBC director general Matt Brittin’s idea of a ‘public service algorithm’ that could compete with large platforms. She also said the UK should be willing to differ from the US administration over plans to give established broadcasters and media companies greater prominence on services such as YouTube and TikTok. Her support for the algorithm idea should be read as a position in the debate, not an adopted policy.

The next concrete markers are the proposed regulations for the under-16 restrictions and further work on the promised device and app protections. Until those steps are published or put into effect, the scope of any additional measures remains open. Nandy’s interview establishes the government’s stated direction; the July response and September parliamentary statement identify the commitments against which its progress can be judged.