KEIR Starmer said his 15-year-old daughter had a “mixed” reaction to his plan to ban social media for under-16s.
The Prime Minister said there had been a “bit of to and fro” in the attitude of his daughter and his son, 17, to the issue.
He told ITV’s This Morning they had “grown up with social media and that is part of their lives”.
Asked how his daughter reacted to the ban, he said: “Slightly mixed. She’s been to-ing and fro-ing a bit, to be fair.
“My boy is 18 in two weeks, I think he probably thinks he’s out the other end now.
“But look, I’m Prime Minister. I’m also a dad. We all worry about our children.
“When our children were born, Vic (Starmer, his wife) and I sat with each other and said: ‘What do we want for our children in life?’ And we said: ‘Happy and confident.’ Happy and safe is a variation on that.
“I think every child, every parent wants that, and, if we ask ourselves hand on heart, do we really think that social media is making our children happy or creating a happy environment? You can’t get away from it. Technology in your pocket, recording everything you do as a teenager.
“We all have our stories about growing up and I actually really feel for this generation – you can’t get away from it. It’s a recipe for bullying and abuse. Everything you do is recorded in some way or form, in five, 10, 20 years, all this material there.
“Actually, I don’t think it overall makes children happier.”
Plans to ban social media for young children have been praised by the NSPCC which said the move was a "watershed moment for child protection".
Bereaved mother Ellen Roome said she and other parents shed a tear when Starmer announced the social media ban.
Schoolboy Jools Sweeney was 14 when he took his own life in 2022, and Roome believes his death could have been linked to an online challenge gone wrong.
She said: “Sitting with the other bereaved parents, we all did shed a tear.
“We shouldn’t be having to be in this position but we all lost our children and campaigned to make a difference for other people’s children, so it was a very powerful but important moment. So delighted to hear it.”
England's Children’s Commissioner said the ban was "positive" but called for the Government to go further and ban all people under the age of 18 from using social media.
The ban was criticised by YouTube which claimed that it would push children onto less safe parts of the internet.
