Social media ban 'deserves serious consideration'
ReutersGuernsey will consider duplicating any social media ban introduced in the UK, the president of Home Affairs has said.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that his government will stop under-16s using social media from next Spring.
Deputy Marc Leadbeater said his view was any measures that better protect young people online "deserve serious consideration", while Education President Paul Montague said it "isn't possible that we stay as we are now."
He said: "Whatever you do, whatever ban you bring in, yes, it might focus the minds of the society on the problem, but it's got to be effective and there are too many ways around it."
Deputy Montague also said: "The big problem with a ban of course is will it be effective?"
"I think they were hoping to wait a little bit longer to see what happened in Australia before starting it in UK, but I think there are political reasons why they have."
In December 2025 Australia became the first country in the world to ban young people from social media.
Sir Keir said the UK would look to bring in a ban for under-16s by spring 2027.
Dave Costin, director of digital learning at Elizabeth College, said Guernsey could lead the way.
"I think that Guernsey as a jurisdiction could stand up and lead the way in this as Guernsey did with smoking back in the 1980s.
"I think that Guernsey as an island has a unique opportunity to legislate something which I think would be supported by the vast majority of parents, the vast majority of adults."
Costin also said he didn't like framing the restrictions as a "ban".
"It's like we don't ban kids from driving," he said.
"We say that children are not old enough to to drive... and I think that applies with social media as well.
"Due to the content that is available on social media, the age of inappropriate content for children who are under-16, I think it's absolutely the right way to go to tell children of a certain age you're not old enough to look at this."
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