Keir Starmer’s resignation on 22 June  leaves social media policy in the melting pot for his successor, widely  expected to be Andy Burnham, the former Mayor of Great Manchester.  The so-called social media ban – age restricting accounts for under 16s -  is still work in progress.   We highlight the technological challenges that will drop into the inbox of the new Prime Minister. 

Andy Burnham will take over at a crucial point when technology choices will be consequential for the way we communicate with each other.  The introduction of age-based restrictions is not, as often portrayed, a minor technical matter, but will fundamentally change in the way we as citizens interact with communications  systems, including social media platforms.   Decisions taken by today’s politicians will have long term effects that may not be easily reversible.

The government is not-so-delicately balanced on a see-saw between domestic pressure from parents organisations on the one hand, and technologies that seem to offer a magic solution but come with difficult trade-offs,  on the other. Parents are  understandably concerned about children’s screen time and exposure to harmful and toxic content, and they want legislative back-up, but the technological solutions are privacy-intrusive and fail to solve the actual problem that the parents want dealt with. It's a circle that is very hard to square. 

Andy Burnham does not have much experience of tech policy but he did have a brush with it as a Minister in Gordon’s Brown’s government,  when he was involved in an early attempt to broker agreements on copyright  between Internet Service Providers and the music  industry. However, he was  side-lined by Lord Mandelson who became Business Secretary in October of the same year. The subsequent legislation, the Digital Economy Act 2010, was successfully challenged at Judicial Review and never implemented. It was an early lesson that simple solutions can be dangerous in tech policy. 

The  present situation

On 15 June,  Keir Starmer, still in his role as Prime Minister,  announced the government’s intention to proceed  with age-based restrictions on children accessing social media in the UK. It cited 116,000 responses to its Growing up in the Online World consultation, claiming that  9 out of 10 parents who responded support the move.  Overall, the announcement was issued in a hurry and  lacks detail, but here’s what we know.

Timing is the first of the challenges for Andy Burnham. The 15th June announcement concerned little actual news but did put some political spin around  the framework that has already been enshrined  in law at the end of April, via the new  Section 214A of the Online Safety Act.   The   intention  is to put  in place a blanket ban  on under 16s accessing social media together with age-based restrictions on specified features such as live video and audio. Another legal change, Article 8ZA of UK GDPR, enables the Secretary of State to provide for  age verification as the means of carrying out age checks. The government is also thinking about age-restricting virtual private networks.  See UK to have children's social media ban by summer 2027 for more detail. 

The government has a deadline of 29 July 2027, with a backstop of December 2027, to lay the necessary Regulations before Parliament [ inserted via Childrens Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 S.71  ].  However, the 15 June announcement  tightened the  implementation timetable, bringing forward the legislative deadline to December 2026, aiming for  age restrictions to begin in Spring 2027. This is an extremely ambitious schedule,  given the anticipated complexity of the new statutory requirements, and the introduction of age-checking technology at scale. Equally worrying is that  the Regulations will be Secondary Legislation  and there will be no Parliamentary scrutiny.  

It is not clear whether Mr Burnham’s new government is bound by the  15 June  announcement. However, it is  bound by the schedule established in  law.

Ofcom’s additional duties

The next challenge is regulatory oversight because the social media ban creates a new suite of new duties for  Ofcom. The regulator has complained about the “additional burden” on top of existing duties under the Online Safety Act, and  is asking for funding to cover the  extra workload.  The government has committed to paying  without knowing the cost.   

The Secretary of State – currently Liz Kendall -  has signalled her commitment to cover the cost. She wrote in a letter to Ofcom, that  “the government will ensure Ofcom has the funding it needs”.  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/june-progress-statement-letter-from-dsit-secretary-of-state-to-ofcom-chair-and-ceo/june-progress-statement-letter-from-dsit-secretary-of-state-to-ofcom-chair-and-ceo

It  appears that the regulator does not have any further information at this stage. In its response, Ofcom says it is waiting for more detail  from Liz Kendall so that it can draw up a business case, implying that the budget has not been set and costs have not been calculated. 

Ofcom wants to know the government’s priorities and  specific requirements in order to develop the business case. Concerns include conflicting age gates for under 16s in the new law, and under 18s in the Online Safety Act; and how DSIT envisages new measures on chatbots, that were also part of the 15 June announcement. This will have to be in the Regulations set before Parliament by December.

Liz Kendall  also told Ofcom  to work closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office [ICO]  to “ensure synergy with data protection legislation”.

Privacy and innovation challenges 

This is where we get to the heart of the challenges for the new Burnham government. Privacy of age checking data  has been highlighted by many experts. A key concern  is the volume of data processing by any of the available methods of age assurance, and the associated security issues. Everyone who uses social media, including adults, will have to verify their age in order to use a social media platform. That means new categories of personal data will be  collected by online platforms and their third party age checking providers. The concern is that this  data can be used in profiling users, and sold on to advertisers, or even used for AI training. The Burnham government should obtain answers to this question.

In her letter to Ofcom, Liz Kendall, has dropped a hint that the age restrictions could be enforced by showing passports and driving licences. It is important for this to be clarified as soon as possible by Mr Burnham’s incoming government.  Meanwhile, Ofcom warns that implementing age checks for 16 year olds will be more difficult than for 18 year olds, especially those on the boundary of 15 and 16. The issues it cites are not only accuracy in estimating age, but also privacy.  

Ofcom is interested in privacy preservation solutions, including a layered approach where age assurance measures could be implemented at the  network, service or device level.  However, there are differences of opinion about new and innovative technologies and their claims solve  the privacy  issues.

Innovation in the age assurance   sector is creating new  technical options backed by  different industrial and political interests. The US government and certain big tech companies are keen on so-called zero-knowledge-proof solutions, which  avoid the need to upload  ID. The US is  not keen on age-gating virtual private networks or VPNs, interestingly  a view that is  shared by the Age Verification Providers Association.  https://avpassociation.com/consultation-response/avpa-response-to-uk-government-consultation-on-social-media/  

Technology choices bring  trade offs. On the one hand, the government will want to protect British children and citizens against the more highly intrusive functionality deployed in these systems. On the other hand, it may also wish to create a buffer against the power of the big tech  corporations, who stand to gain even more power than they currently have. These are big questions for the incoming Burnham government.

Overall, the need to match political demands with technological feasibility for implementation at scale is going to be a significant challenge that should not be underestimated. Andy Burnham’s decisions on age checks will be consequential –  not a minor technical matter.

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See also Social media ban for kids: simple message, tough choices

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