Blackburn with Darwen Council urged to support tougher rules on social media use by under-16s

Blackburn with Darwen Council will next week be urged to support tougher rules for the use of social media by under-16s.

A Conservative group motion to its full meeting on Thursday says: “Children are spending more time on social media than ever before, often exposed to violent or pornographic content, or contacted by strangers in ways that would never be acceptable offline.”

But it falls short of calling for an Australian-style total ban backed by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and being considered by the government after the House of Lords voted in favour of such a prohibition.

The motion is proposed by Darwen South’s Cllr Kevin Connor and seconded by Conservative group boss Cllr John Slater.

It calls for Blackburn with Darwen Council chief executive Denise Park to write to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to express its concerns and consider:

: oversight bodies, such as Ofcom being given sufficient resource and, if necessary, powers to enforce legislation;

:establishing initiatives to bring about Parliamentary cross-party consensus so agreed legislation can be enacted speedily; and

:reviewing and, if necessary, amending, the responsibilities of social media and AI companies with emphasis on their duty to ensure the content on their platforms is within legal, ethical and moral boundaries.

The motion says: “Both Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch have in recent weeks voiced their concerns and intentions to act by bringing in measures to limit underage use.

“This council is united in its belief of personal freedom, but it also believes that childhood should be protected, parents should be supported, and responsibility should come before profit.

“We recognise the On-Line Safety Act enacted in 2023 and amended in March 2025 gave platforms legal duties to protect users from illegal content and children from on-line harm.

“The following few statistics, we feel, demonstrate more needs to be done:

“· almost one million pre-school children are already active on social media platforms designed for teenagers and adults, despite age restrictions typically set at thirteen;

“· population data estimates that there could be up to 814,000 UK children aged three to five engaging with social media;

“· children aged five to 15 spend an average of five hours and 24 minutes per day on social media activity; and

“· 27 per cent of UK children aged eight to fifteen have experienced cyberbullying.

“The rate and range of social media expansion coupled with the ever-increasing use of AI brings greater burdens on Government to keep pace.

“With this in mind we believe that an on-going monitoring and review regime is essential.”