UK Vows to Curb "Addictive Nature" of Social Media
At a southwest London event, Starmer declared the "status quo is not good enough" and criticized the historical lag between technological advancement and legislative response. The government is now poised to accelerate action on a proposed social media prohibition for youth under 16, contingent on consultation findings currently underway.
The Prime Minister specifically targeted features engineered to promote compulsive usage—including infinite scroll mechanisms and algorithmic content feeds that trap users in cycles of endless consumption, commonly known as doomscrolling.
"We also need to act very quickly, not just on the age concern, but on the devices and applications that mean the sort of auto-scrolling, the constant gluing to the machine that you can never stop scrolling, and it just encourages you or that one thing follows from another," Starmer stated.
"We have to break that habit to stop the addictive nature," he added.
Britain's regulatory strategy involves acquiring enhanced authority to enforce stricter oversight of Silicon Valley corporations. Starmer emphasized that prolonged regulatory timelines are no longer acceptable.
"Now we're taking the powers to make sure we can act within months, not years," he added.
Meanwhile, the Information Commissioner's Office, Britain's data protection authority, has initiated a formal inquiry into Elon Musk's platforms X and xAI following allegations that the Grok AI system generated non-consensual explicit deepfake imagery. The investigation stems from reports indicating Grok produced sexual content depicting individuals without permission, including minors, according to an official statement from the watchdog.
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