Tuesday briefing: Is a social media ban in the UK enough to help protect young people?

Young people have to navigate a ‘digital-first’ world where online harms go beyond social media. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters View image in fullscreen Young people have to navigate a ‘digital-first’ world where online harms go beyond social media. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters Tuesday briefing: Is a social media ban in the UK enough to help protect young people? In today’s newsletter: With Keir Starmer expected to announce Australia-style restrictions, further problems – including AI chatbots - are on the horizon Good morning. Keir Starmer’s expected speech next week about young people’s access to social media will be analysed as much for how it benefits the outcome of a certain byelection, as its safeguarding of children’s synapses. After issuing an ultimatum to tech firms yesterday to block children’s phones from sharing nude images, the government is expected to make another major announcement about social media within days. Briefings suggest it will stop short of a blanket ban on under-16s accessing social media. But it will still amount to radical regulation, with Downing Street insisting that Starmer is up for a fight with big tech. For anyone who worries about the impact of unfettered algorithms and endless scrolling on brains of any age – by which I mean almost everyone – whether or not Starmer secures his legacy by saving young minds from digital takeover is incidental. The stakes are so much higher, as Starmer himself knows, having sat across the table from parents who have said their children died as a result of social media use. And there are other stories at play: the halting pace of law-making that cannot match the exponential speed of emerging online harms, and a growing inter-generational consensus that urgent action is required, as young people tell adults with increasing specificity the frameworks they need to navigate a “digital-first” world. So, not much to discuss with our global technology editor Dan Milmo , who was at London Tech Week, where Starmer had just finished his address. First, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed that he plans to invite King Charles on a state visit to Ukraine as early as this year, which would make him the most senior royal to travel to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Middle East | Fears of a return to a full-scale regional war in the Middle East eased on Monday as Israel and Iran said they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Donald Trump to “immediately stop shooting”. UK news | A report has found “widespread and concerning evidence” of bias and victim-blaming in the family courts – primarily disadvantaging women. US news | Donald Trump was loudly booed when he was shown on the video screens at Madison Square Garden on Monday night at the NBA finals. Unemployment | A government-funded pilot of “hyperlocal” job support in 10 neighbourhoods across England has shown “ promising early signs of effectiveness”, including for y