在6月18日梅克菲尔德补选前夕，首相基尔·斯塔默爵士预计将宣布禁止16岁以下儿童使用主要社交媒体应用。该政策出台之际，政府已向科技公司发出三个月的最后通牒以阻止儿童在线观看裸体图片，且三月的YouGov民调显示，有76%的英国人支持社交媒体禁令。

尽管支持者主张保护儿童安全，但批评者警告称，澳大利亚类似的禁令已被证明存在漏洞，且并未增加更健康的爱好。此外，鉴于英国致力于将自己定位为全球科技和人工智能领域的领导者，该禁令存在向硅谷发送敌对信号的风险。

像韦斯·斯特里廷这样杰出的工党政治家主张，像X及其聊天机器人Grok这样的平台应该被视为出版商，这可能使人工智能语言模型在英国无法生存。然而，正如美国大使馆所警告的那样，这种激进的言论可能会威慑国际投资，并给美国公司带来不成比例的负担。

Ahead of the June 18th Makerfield by-election, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce a ban on under-16s using major social media applications. This policy comes as the government gave tech firms a three-month ultimatum to block children from viewing online nudity, and a March YouGov poll showed that 76% of Britons support a social media ban.

While proponents argue for child safety, critics warn that Australia's similar ban has proved leaky and has not increased wholesomeness. Furthermore, the ban risks sending hostile signals to Silicon Valley, which is problematic given Britain's ambition to position itself as a global leader in tech and AI.

Prominent Labour politicians like Wes Streeting argue that platforms like X and its chatbot Grok should be treated as publishers, potentially making AI language models unviable in Britain. However, such aggressive rhetoric could deter international investment and place disproportionate burdens on American firms, as warned by the US embassy.

Source: A kids’ social-media ban would be a bad parting gift from Keir Starmer

Subtitle: But it perfectly captures the British prime minister’s vanilla brand of populism

Dateline: 6月 11, 2026 04:20 上午