UK expects Meta to extend new US teenage protections to British users

The UK government expects Meta to extend new protections for teenage users announced in the US to Britain, as ministers seek to prevent American teenagers from receiving stronger safeguards than their British counterparts.

Pat McFadden, Work and Pensions Secretary, said the government would not accept a situation in which young people in the US received a higher level of protection from social media than those in the UK.

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay up to $18 billion (£13.3 billion) under a US settlement that also includes a package of new measures aimed at protecting teenage users.

The agreement settles claims brought by 47 US states alleging that Instagram was designed with features that could encourage addictive use among children and teenagers and damage their mental health.

Asked by Sky News whether he expected Meta to introduce the new safety measures in the UK, Mr McFadden said: “Yeah, we would.

“I mean, we don’t want a situation where young people in America have got a higher rate of protection than young people in the UK.

“But we’re not just leaving it to Meta. We’re taking action ourselves.”

The government is preparing a wider package of restrictions on young people’s social media use. Mr McFadden said former prime minister Keir Starmer had announced a ban on social media for young people due to come into force next year.

Ministers are also considering night-time curfews aimed at tackling the amount of time children spend scrolling through social media platforms.

“The previous prime minister Keir Starmer announced a ban on social media for young people to come into force next year.

“We’re also having night time curfews. We’ve got to do something about this endless scrolling, which is so addictive for young people.”

Mr McFadden acknowledged that social media and wider digital technology could provide significant benefits, but argued that policymakers needed to account for the potentially addictive nature of the platforms.

“There’s a great side to this technology. I know it’s opened up a world of knowledge that didn’t exist when I was growing up, but we also need to operate in a way that understands how addictive it is, and make sure that children and young people can have a real childhood in the real physical world.

“It’s better for their mental health and better for all of us in the future.”

The comments place pressure on Meta to ensure that safeguards introduced as part of its US settlement do not create a two-tier system in which British teenagers receive weaker protections.

Mr McFadden later told BBC Breakfast that Britain had already taken a tougher approach to online safety than many other jurisdictions through the Online Safety Act 2023.

The government’s position reflects a broader shift towards treating social media access and platform design as issues of public policy rather than leaving protections primarily to individual technology companies.

For Meta, extending the US measures to Britain could add to the regulatory costs of operating its platforms, but failing to do so would risk renewed political pressure as ministers prepare to impose their own restrictions on young people’s access to social media.