Starmer 'appeasing' big tech firms, says online safety campaigner

A leading campaigner has accused the prime minister of "appeasing" big tech companies and being "late to the party" in regulating social media and artificial intelligence.

Crossbench peer Baroness Kidron told the BBC Sir Keir Starmer needed to "get on with it" rather than launching more consultations.

She also criticised the PM for citing his own experience as a father of two teenage children on social media, arguing that this did not make him an expert on the subject and that his family were "sheltered" compared to others.

The government rejected the claims, with a spokesperson saying it had already introduced "some of the strongest online safety protections in the world".

Sir Keir has launched a consultation on banning under-16s from social media and promised to crackdown on the addictive elements of the apps.

But Baroness Kidron said many of the proposals had already been put forward in the House of Lords and could be accepted by the government as soon as next week.

The crossbench peer, who was an award-winning film director before joining the House of Lords, has become a leading voice in Parliament on online safety.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson, she said successive governments had pushed back on proposals which would have stopped things like AI chatbots being used to create sexualised images.

Asked what she would tell Sir Keir, Baroness Kidron quoted Winston Churchill, saying "the appeaser thinks that they feed the crocodile in the hope they'll be eaten last".

She accused the PM of "rubbing up against the tech bros", adding: "We're giving away our kids to Silicon Valley to please Trump."

In an article on Monday, Sir Keir said he wanted to "crack down on the addictive elements of social media" that "keep our children hooked on their screens for hours".

"And if that means a fight with the big social media companies, then bring it on," he added.

A government spokesperson said: "We are clear: when it comes to children's safety, nothing is off the table, and no company is too big to face the consequences.

"Just weeks ago, we called out abhorrent non-consensual intimate images being shared on Grok, which led to functionality being removed, and now ministers are legislating to make 'nudification' tools illegal and bringing additional chatbots within scope of the Online Safety Act."

Sir Keir has often spoken about how as a parent of two teenage children he has first-hand experience of the dangers of social media for young people.

However, Baroness Kidron said it was "careless" of the prime minister to see the issue "through the lens of his own children".

"I don't think that anybody is an expert because they have their own children," she said.

"His children are very particularly sheltered.

"He is the prime minister. He has two working parents with education and access to all the information in the world and nothing that untoward might happen to his individual children. That's not the experience of children at large."

Last month the government launched a three-month consultation on banning social media for under-16s in the UK, after the world's first ban took effect in Australia last year.

Opponents of the idea have argued it could see children move to other areas of the internet and would fail to improve safety.

Baroness Kidron told Nick Robinson a ban social media for under 16-year-olds was "not a silver bullet".

"My own personal view is that we are in a digital world, we have an AI future, and we can't uninvite the next generation," she said.

"We have to let them participate in that. But I do think that access to children should be conditional, and it should be conditional on respecting their rights, on keeping them safe, on actually not addicting them and not extracting economic value out of their behaviour."

You can listen to the full interview with Baroness Kidron on BBC Radio 4 at 17:30 GMT on Saturday on or BBC Sounds.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.